SailBlog - ARC Prize giving

Graham

22/12/2008, Gaiety Gros Islet, Saint Lucia Club

Having taken 25 days to reach Saint Lucia, we were clearly not expecting to win any prizes at the ARC Prize giving Party for arriving first! However, much to our surprise, QUASAR IV was awarded the Philip Hitchcock Trophy for being the safest boat as assessed by the 8 ARC Safety Inspectors that conducted safety checks across the entire fleet of 225 ARC boats. We were very pleased with this award and received a tankard and a free meal at the Coal Pot Restaurant in Castries, a top quality restaurant, right by the water's edge. The awards are all given in Saint Lucia rather than Las Palmas; it would be somewhat embarrassing if the voted 'safest boat' sunk on the way to Saint Lucia....

SailBlog - We made it!

Graham

17/12/2008, Rodney Bay Marina, Saint Lucia, Caribbean

Just arrived in Rodney Bay Marina, Saint Lucia, Caribbean. It's not sunk in yet. What a place; so friendly and welcoming. Many thanks to our family and friends for welcoming us on the pontoon when we arrived. Well endured! We really appreciated it. We had no sleep last night, and we have parties at 6pm, 7pm and 8pm tonight, so it's not looking too good for tonight either! Booked in for a few weeks so once we have worked out which we is up, we'll be back on the blog. Thank you all for your support to this epic journey so far.

             

       

                

SailBlog - Land almost within sight

Graham

17/12/2008, North Atlantic

We are almost there! With 88 Nm to go, everyone is desperately looking for our landfall, although I think we may have a few hours to go yet. Our arrival time looks to be in the early hours of tomorrow morning, or midnight Saint Lucia time (GMT-4 hours). Everyone is really looking forward to setting foot on land for the first time in 25 days, and no doubt there will be a few hours of land sickness which normally hits us after some time at sea. Still, nothing a few glasses of local rum will not resolve I suspect! Bongo is contemplating what he will cook for our final night at sea. One thing is for certain though, it won't be fresh fish until the fishing line is untangled from the Rutland wind generator blades..... Well, this may be our last blog entry from sea, all being well, so we hope you all enjoyed the read over the past 25 days or so, and look out to see what we are up to in Saint Lucia. And....thanks for all of your comments on the blog; once we get to an internet cafe in Saint Lucia, we will be able to sit down and read them all for some good entertainment I suspect! Bye for now.

SailBlog - Good news and bad news!

Graham

15/12/2008, North Atlantic 

After a forecast for very little wind, we have been happily sailing along in 20 knots of wind for the past 20 hours. So much for the weather report. This has been really good news for 2 reasons: the first, we get to more ARC parties in Saint Lucia of course, and second, when we tried to stop the engine yesterday after charging our batteries, the STOP lever "...came off in me 'and Guv..." said the helmswoman, AND, wait for it...the fuel filter developed a blockage, so the engine stopped itself anyway! As per usual with engine problems on QUASAR IV, it was just getting dark and the sea state was degrading, not too badly, but too badly to have your head buried in a hot engine compartment for 2 hours sorting out the problem. We know this from the 'Gib to Porto Santo experience'. So, sails out, and sail for the rest of the night, and...as if by magic...the wind started up immediately and we have averaged 6.25 knots for the past 14 hours! Sadly (for me), it was my turn to repair the engine, so as I finished my watch at 10am this morning as the sun rose, a new fuel filter was installed, engine bled, and an intricate pulley, paracord string, and toggle arrangement has now been installed to operate the stop lever on the engine from the cockpit, bypassing the broken cable. Sailing....it's all good fun! Oh, and we are now a mere 322 Nm from Saint Lucia, even better!

SailBlog - Oh no...where's the wind gone again?

Graham

14/12/2008, North Atlantic

Last night, it was time to sit down with the calculator and do some serious navigation sums based around how much fuel we had left, our distance to go, and the time we needed to arrive by. The conclusion we rapidly came to was that we now had enough fuel for 200 Nm, with 470 Nm to go. No problem if the wind blows, but a cross check of the forecast that we download from the US did not bode well. Three more days of light winds, albeit from the right direction. So, we have now worked out our minimum mileage and speed we must maintain each day in order to arrive by the 18th December, and must balance use of the sails and the engine accordingly. Battery charging using the engine is now out completely, unless the engine is on anyway, but our solar panel is doing a fine job...when it isn't raining that is, or dark, of course (about 14 hours a day!). So, basically, we are at the mercy of the Gods at the moment as to whether we make it by the 18th, but we are certain we can. Besides which, we just cannot miss out on any more ARC parties in St Lucia under any circumstances, so we have an alternate plan for the engine fuel based on sunflower oil, olive oil, and oil. We read about it somewhere...we think! The temperature has been scorching the past 2 days and seems to be increasing by the day now. Another 30 Deg C today, and we are all melting. Still, beats freezing to death back in Blighty, eh?!!

SailBlog - Another Marlin gets away...

Graham

13/12/2008, North Atlantic

Mark T's marlin got away the other day with hook, line and sinker, so it came as no surprise to me that whatever was on the end of my line pulling it out at lightning speed was also big. It also got my hook, line and sinker! Today will need to be a muppet production day from the remaining rubber glove fingers as we seem to now be totally out of lures. The muppet looks like a squid (apparently) and has the hook hidden inside with a weight. We tow them along behind us about 20 metres behind the boat and wait for a bite. Some days there is nothing, other days, the whole shebang is destroyed! Well, a small bit of lightning last night, a fairly steady wind, if not a bit on the light side, and we are still making our way to the Island of Rum....

SailBlog - The wind continues...

Graham

12/12/2008, North Atlantic

The good news is that the wind continues and we managed another day of 137 Nm over the past 24 hours. The sea has been interesting; a steady rocky motion, overlaid with a large Atlantic swell from the NE which, at times, has appeared to be at least 15 feet high. Most of the time though, it has been around the 10 feet mark. It is certainly impressive. We have had a few light showers, but nothing too dramatic which is also good news. Given that today is Day 19 of our journey, we had hoped to be in Saint Lucia by now, but the complete failure of this year's trade winds to arrive in time for the ARC has added a significant time onto our route. We now have about 680 Nm to go, and we are all looking forward to arriving after what will probably be about 24 days at sea, our longest ever passage for any of us. We had 2 egrets cadge a lift with us the other night and managed to sit on our genoa sheet (rope, for the non-nautical) all night, asleep, without falling off, which was very impressive! They then took off at sunrise, circled the boat a few times before departing towards South America as far as we could tell. Obviously looking for some warmer weather than Europe has to offer at the moment. Mark T inadvertently donated a winch handle to the deep last night, but other than that, no incidents to report....