Dec. 1, 2002
Waiting for Delivery Sails to Arrive

When I arrived in Guadeloupe on Friday, Nov 29th, the awards ceremony for the Route du Rhum was already over and the crew for the Open 50 was at the marina taking off the racing sails. We finished provisioning today. Just waiting for sails to be released by the Customs agency. Unfortunately, the Customs have been on strike for a couple of weeks delaying the release of our sails.

Dec. 3, 2002
We're Leaving Today

1530 UTC
16 02 N 61 23 W
TWD 090 TWS 18-20 knots
COG 016 SOG 6.8 knots
DTF 3700 miles

Dec. 11, 2002
Still A Long Way to Go

34 35 N 4857 W
COG 100 SOG 9 knots
TWD 197 TWS 12-13 knots

Dec. 13, 2002
Thinking of Taking Up Gardening

36 11 N 43 29 W
SOG 8.5 kts COG 022
TWA 106 TWS 18 -20 kts
Main w/1st reef and storm jib. Hard on the wind.

Yesterday we did get in a little downwind surfing in 25-30 kts of breeze. 20-23 knot boat speed. Then the wind went light as we pasted thru the center of the low. The baro bottomed at 1002 and an hour later we were hard on the wind in 40-45 knots. Put a triple reef in the main and put up the storm stays'l. Lots of spray across the deck. I'm thinking more and more about taking up gardening. If it wasn't for poison ivy, I'd be in the garden now.

We are going to get slammed by another low later today or tonight. Supposed to have SE wind for a better point of sail tomorrow.

Dec. 14, 2002 1630 UTC
Squally Night

36 49 N 39 37 W
TWS10 TWA 10-20
SOG 7.5 COG 90
Full main and gennaker
Distance to Isle of Wight in England 1819nm

Squalls last night with great lightning display. A bit of excitement this morning when the ballast pump was turned on before opening the valve. For a moment, I thought I was in a steam room with a burst pipe; water was spraying everywhere. Spent most of the morning sopping up water and patching the holes in the hoses. We're sailing on waiting for the next low to roll over us.

Dec. 18, 2002 1300 UTC
Beam Reaching

41 21 N 23 07 W
TWD 312 TWS 20-28 knots
COG 035-045 SOG 12-15 knots
Full main, gennaker and solent

Early this morning a wave washed a swordfish into the cockpit on my watch. It was a whopping 12 inches long. His bright blue skin was silky smooth and slippery in my hand as I tossed him back in the ocean.

We are finally screaming along at 18 to 20 kts. BIG FUN! WAY better Than Water World. Waves regularly plummeting off the bow and drenching the cockpit. Just a moment ago when I was on the helm, a big wave hit me and jarred me loose from my precarious perch between two winches slamming me into another winch. Didn't hurt too much. Maybe a little bruise.

We're bouncing around quite a lot as we are now steering a little closer to the wind. But morale on board is definitely up as we scream across the surface of the waves. To celebrate reaching the Azores, We had Backcountry freeze dried Fruit Trifle for breakfast. Delicious! Our ETA for the entrance to the English Channel is Dec. 23rd, if Weather holds as predicted.

Dec. 20, 2002 1200 UTC
Snow?

46 52 N 15 00 W
DTF 575 (Cowes) at 062
TWS 18-25 Kts TWD 205
COG 055-065 SOG 15 Kts
Beam reach w/full main, solent and gennaker

The sky is winter steel grey and it looks like it could snow at any minute. We're not getting the wind velocity predicted by our weather router but the wind direction is close. No complaints about the velocity. As Austrailian, Nick Maloney would say, we're stonking without it. Not too much excitement on board. Yesterday, we had to change one of the hydraulic rams over for the autopilot because it kept giving us an error message and shutting down. We're still on schedule for an ETA of late Dec 22 or early Dec 23.

A few days ago, the crew on the Open 60, Kingfisher, reported hitting something and damaging one of their dagger boards. They left the same day we did from Guadeloupe and are reporting the same day of arrival in Cowes. The race is on!

Dec. 21, 2002 1100 UTC
Ready for a Cruise on the Queen Mary

48 44 N 008 35 W
TWD 170 TWS 26-30kts
COG 075 SOG 12 Kts
DTF 292 m at 065
Close reach with single reef in mainsail and solent

I'm in a hot jacuzzi watching the steam rise as the ship powers along in the cold North Atlantic. I step out of the jacuzzi and wrap up in a nice white fluffy DRY towel, dry my hair with a blow dryer and put on DRY clothes and stroll up to the shuffleboard deck and have a steaming hot cup of cocoa. The motion of the ship is a gentle roll just enough to let me know that I am at sea.

Back to reality. Life aboard our red sled is only getting wetter and colder as we head northeast towards Cowes. The promised front pasted through early this morning with 30-35 knots of wind, rain and drizzle and white foaming cold North Atlantic water flying across the deck and drenching the cockpit

The motion of the boat accelerating from 12 knots to 20 knots feels like the TGV fast train leaving the station in Paris with the steady pull exerting a few Gs and the clickety-clack of the boat bouncing across the waves.

No icebergs yet but we are standing by with the polar bear repellant.

Enough already.

Dec. 22, 2002 0445 UTC
We're Almost There!

49 34 N 04 05 W
TWD 215 TWS 18-22 Kts
COG 055 SOG 12-15 Kts
DTF 130 at 055
Full Mainsail and Spinnaker 115 AWA

We're still waiting for the severe cold front to pass through with gusts uq to 50 knots. Maybe we will get lucky and get in before it passes. Our ETA is 1500 hours today. We are sailing in the English Channel now to the north of the shipping lanes. It looks like rush hour to the south of us with ships lined up one after another.

The weather is quite balmy for being late December at near 50 degrees latitude. Guess it helps to...

My email message was interrupted when a gust of wind hit the boat causing it to round up and heel excessively. Heeling more, more, more and then quickly coming upright. The spinnaker broke loose from the halyard near the masthead and fell in the water. It took all four of us to drag it back on deck.

Thirty minutes later we are back up to speed with the gennaker replacing the spinnaker.

The wind is picking up and is shifting more westerly. We're now surfing at 18 knots. Only 117 miles to go...

Dec. 22, 2002 1630 UTC
We're Here!

Abeam the Needles, entrance to the Solent

Sailing hard to catch the tide to enter Cowes, the dying SW wind kept us from meeting our needed arrival time of 1500 hours in order to have enough water to make it to the Offshore Challenges dock. We were also further delayed by the British Customs. They were patrolling the area near the Solent and launched a RIB and three men from their battleship grey cruiser. The men were dressed in waterproof SWAT gear with helmets and communication head sets.

The RIB came up alongside and one of the men requested to board our boat to do a routine check for firearms, drugs and illegal imports. Two of the Customs agents stepped off the RIB and over the lifelines onto our deck.

While one of the men took information from our passports, the other man searched the boat using a mini-flashlight and a 3-inch diameter mirror. The searching agent was in the main cabin with the combined nav station/galley forward and center and one pipe berth on each side. He looked out of the companionway and asked me, "So are the sleeping accomodations forward?"

"No, this is it. The sail locker is forward."

After spending some time below rooting through our gear and making his way through the boat, he asked, "So how long have you been at sea?"

"Nineteen days."

He looked as though he wanted his gas mask.

After they left, I opened my backpack to put my passport back in my fanny pack and the fanny pack was gone. We found it in Karen's backpack.

We were happy to reach the Needles just after sunset at 4:30 p.m. Gets dark early at 50 degrees North. We only had to stand off for about an hour waiting for the tide to rise so we could get across a shallow spot in the river blocking our way to the Offshore Challenges dock. Mark Turner, from Offshore Challenges, was standing on the dock to catch our lines and welcome us to Cowes with a magnum of Grohl.

A hot shower, dry clothes and a meal of REAL food was very, very well received.

At Offshore Challenge Base, Cowes