Lyn's Log, 2nd January 2006 - Atlantic Crossing, Part 2

Atlantic; S0º50', W28º34'; 5,973 miles.

Happy New Year! We celebrated with the BBC world service who, after cricket results, broadcast the chimes of Big Ben and wished everyone a Happy New Year before reading the news. Not terribly exciting but we had a drink and then I went back to bed. This morning we crossed the equator at midday local time, sharing a rum and coke with Neptune.

The Doldrums were a time of changing winds and weather. The wind was mostly around the northeast and the skies various amounts of cloud. One day was the day of rain. During the first torrential downpour I shampooed my hair and body and got it all rinsed out before collecting 17 litres of drinkable rainwater, filling our empty water bottles. It wasn’t filtered through rocks etc, as spring water, but poured through the bulge in the reefed mainsail. It looks clear and tastes fine. It continued to rain that day which meant having all the windows closed and often the hatch as well. It was very hot and damp and I don’t think my hair really dried all day. To add to the misery, we had a gas leak around the gas tap in the cupboard directly underneath where the gas bottle is on deck. When this is turned off, there is no leak, but when we want to use the cooker, the gas leaks into the cupboard. We could not keep the saloon shut up for too long. Now Andrew has smeared a lot more Calortite around the joints and it seems to be holding.

We knew when we came out of the Doldrums because the wind suddenly changed to a constant south-easterly direction and a westerly current set in. This meant we had to sail close to the wind which, although we heal over in one direction instead of rocking from side to side, becomes rather bumpy when trying to go as close to the wind as possible. If we go too slow or bear off the wind, we cannot sail towards Salvadore. Eventually we have decided to make for the 4-mile long island of Fernando de Noronha, 200 miles off the eastern bulge of Brazil. This gives us another 5-10 degrees off the wind, but we are advised that the westerly current and the winds get stronger as we go West. Going to Salvador would have taken perhaps another 12 days, whereas Fernando is 4 days. It is not a comfortable sail. Keeping the seacock off under the main sink makes the water in the drainage pipes get smelly every day and we have to ease the boat upright for a time long enough to open the seacock and change the water down the sink. We hove-to for a short while one day to make some small repairs/adjustments to the Aries steering.

On New Year’s Eve another food bag produced a lovely tin of ham of which only half was needed for lunch, so I decided to use the rest in the evening meal. Nothing keeps very long as we do not have enough power for the fridge. Our generator barely gives us enough power for all the lights at night. I had a very pleasant evening with the fairy lights on and a Beatles cassette playing. I pampered my poorly neglected feet, soaking them in hot soapy water and then massaging them with T-tree moisturiser. Andrew gave them a lovely massage. Then I chopped an onion and garlic, fried them and added the chopped ham, a tin of ‘tomato frito’ and a tin of sliced mushrooms and some ground black pepper, and served it on cooked pasta, with Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top.

For the last few days the wind increased so that the seas kept beating into and over us making it a very bumpy and hot ride for us inside, and not very easy to sleep at night. The increased speed meant we had enough power to have the fridge on by day and cool our drinks. It was a pity I didn’t put the bread in the fridge as it was mouldy by the third day after baking. We had dolphins with us a few times, and a lot of seabirds, mainly shearwaters, but I think we were going too fast to be successful with our fishing. When one of the birds went for the lure, I had to pull in the line very quickly and we lost the weight.

We had a second wash day. We leave the dirty clothes in a bucket of hot soapy seawater for a couple of hours, rub it through, rinse three or four times in fresh seawater and then have a final rinse in half a gallon of fresh water. It is then pegged out on lines round the boat and dries in a couple of hours. In the heat the best clothing is swimwear, with T-shirt and underpants worn at night for that little extra warmth when on lookout or adjusting the sails. When it rains it is too hot for oilies, but I have made a sort of skirt out of a plastic bag to keep my bottom dry. Not exactly the height of yachting fashion!