The Crossing

2/11/09 Cape Verde Isles

We got woken up at 2:30 am that morning. We were leaving from Tarrafal to go to Praia, to get fuel, food and pick up Steve and Phoebe. It was a five hour sail and we planned to arrive in Praia at 9:00 am. On the way we all got rested because there was a lot to do when we got there.

When we got to Praia I radioed Phoebe and Steve to say we were here. We were anchored off the mainland and could only get there by dinghy. So that’s where Tim’s job came in. He would drive us all back and forth from land to the boat. Ron and Dale were the first to come ashore with the gas bottles for the stove. Tim came back with Steve and Phoebe’s stuff but they had stayed on land to help with the shopping. About half an hour later Ron called us to come and pick up the gas bottles and to bring Blyth and me with him. The main reason I needed to come into town was so that I could put my last blog up in an internet Café. Once we got to the police dock which is the only place that is possible to tie up the dinghy, Ron and Steve loaded the full gas bottles. Then we all headed into town. We got a lift in a small mini bus taxi which felt as if it were about to fall apart. From there Ron and I went off to the internet café whilst the others hit the supermarket.

After I had sorted out my blog we went to the fruit and vegetable market, and found Dale and Phoebe. Blyth and Steve had already gone back with all the shopping from the supermarket, and by the time we had found Phoebe and Dale they already had loads of stuff. I was told to wait on the edge of the market, with all our food so that we did not have to carry it all around whilst the others got more. As I was waiting with the food a man walked in with a tuna on his shoulder that looked about 100 pound.

 We did not have much time to hang around because we had a Shell fuel truck coming to the harbor to so we could fill up the tanks before we left. When we got back to the boat we drove down to the one place that we could tie up and waited for the Shell lorry to come. As we arrived a big gang of people hung around on the jetty watching the boat. It all was a bit odd having them all watching us as we worked, and we had to have at least two of us up on deck at any time, in case they tried to steal anything. The lorry arrived late and it took us ages to fill up all our tanks because we had use so much coming here. While we were still filling Ron and Phoebe went off to buy some last things that we had not found before. By the time they got back it was dark, but finally just a bit behind schedule we were gone to the deep blue sea. I had the 12 to 2 watch. It was the most tiring thing ever.

3/11/09 At Sea

I woke up this morning at about 10:00 am to see a tiny little volcanic island which apparently is still live. It would be my last sight of land for quite some time. By the side of the volcano there was a strong wind and we got the boat up to ten knots. (A knot is 1.1 times faster than miles per hour). The wind carried us right out until we had almost lost sight of land before it turned to a more steady pace. Tonight I got to change my watch to 10 to 12. It is a much nicer watch.

4/11/09

Once we knew for sure that we were in the trade winds (which is a good wind that will not die down and will keep its course for a long time) we hoisted the Genaker which is a huge sail that sits in a long sock and we would pull it up the mast on a halyard (rope) and then we’d pull up the sock revealing the sail. We use the Genaker is to get high speed from light winds, since it’s massive and extremely light.  It’s my favorite.

5/11/09

We kept the Genaker up all night last night and are  now going at 7, 8, 9 knots which is a good speed and we will be across in 10 days if we can keep it up. We saw a few birds stalking the waters for little fish, they were amazing flyers preserving energy by using the wind so they would glide over the water like jets.

A Busy Day on Sea Dragon

Breakfast - Fruit, oat puffs (Blyth), Omelette (Hugh)

Clear-up Breakfast

DutyList

-Cleaning the heads (Loo / shower)

-Sweeping floors

-Tidy deck

-Cooking

-Washing & drying dishes

Science

- Water Sampling - limited by weather

-Beach transects (not at sea!)

- Interviews (not at sea!) with fisherman, surfers, locals, envirnment agencies, Tourist officers.

Sailing - anytime of day or night when needed.   At least 4 hands on deck to raise or reef the sails

Swimming (anchored) - to cool down & for exercise

6/11/09 Still at Sea

When I got up this morning the sun was already shining down on us with hardly a cloud in the sky, and blue was everywhere in the sea and sky. It was beautiful. Later on I put out the fishing line and settled down to my book, The Recruit. After a nice snacky lunch there was the buzz of the fishing line going out and when I got to the rod and started to pull the fish in he felt like a big one. Then the line went and we lost him along with my favorite hook.

7/11/09

I woke up hearing the sound of the Genaker being pulled down. Blyth jumped out of his bunk to go help and I followed. Putting our harnesses on we ran up to find that a big squall was coming our way. The Genaker is only meant for light winds and would split if the winds got too strong, so it had been a desperate struggle to get it down in the strengthening winds. Soon Steve and Phoebe came up to join us. Then the rain started and we all got soaked because we didn’t have our heavy weather gear on, but we didn’t mind. Then the wind picked up to 46 knots which is over 50 miles per hour. It was crazy but great fun. We put the jib out and just off that we made 14.9 knots, it was the fastest the boat had gone since it had left England. The rain lasted all day and most of the night. My watch tonight was absolutely wet and miserable.

8/11/09

Today the weather was very rainy and we all got soaked. We had to take turns between who would go up on deck next. During the rain we saw quite a few storm petrels which are small little birds that look quite like pigeons. I talked to a big 299 m tanker on the radio. It was very cool.

9/11/09

The weather has cleared a bit now and we are making a good overall speed of about 7 knots. We are doing very well in time and things are going great, apart from the fishing. Another fish hit earlier and the line broke again. We think that something must have spilled on it which is why it keeps on snapping.

10/11/09          

Nice morning, few clouds. Finished my book and going to start another. A squall came this afternoon and we started to put the jib in then the roller that brings in the jib broke and we had to leave it out all through the storm. When the storm calmed down Steve, Phoebe and Ron brought the jib down and took apart the roller to see what had happened to it. The plate had been ripped and we were missing lots of screws and bolts. We decided to fix it in the morning because it was starting to get dark.  

11/11/09

800 miles to go. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! The generator is not starting very well but we finally got it going. It is another very nice day but a bit hot and there’s not much shelter on deck so I made a shaded area from a towel and read my book. Later on we put up a long pole (called a ‘spinnaker pole’) from the mast which the jib attaches onto for going down wind. It looks very cool from behind. It is called sailing ‘wing and wing’ because it looks like a birds wings.

12/11/09

Very nice morning. Managed to get the generator running smoothly. Talked to a fishing boat called Alexandra that was fishing for yellow fin Tuna. Best of all we passed the 500 mile mark. Amazing feeling! We would be there in 2 – 3 days. In the evening we saw a boat out in the distance and far out on the other side was a lightning storm.

13/11/09

Today we took down the pole that holds the jib out and put it back to its normal position, lying on deck. Then we put up the staysail which is like a small jib. So in the end we had 3 sails up at the same time. That evening Steve thought he saw a green flare. Ron did not know what a green flare meant because the distress flares are only red and white. We radioed to see if there were any boats in distress in our area but no one answered. So in the end we radioed the coast guard to tell them we saw the flare and continued on towards Guyana. 

14/11/09 An Atlantic Swim

Another nice sunny day. When I was sitting down below playing chess with Phoebe when there was a sudden yell down the hatch, “MAN OVERBOARD!”. We all went sprinting up the stairs onto the deck. We quickly set to work taking down the sails as the boat was steered up wind to stop it faster. I went down to get the ladder. It was all very exciting. But of course it was only a practice and Ron only did it so we could have a swim in the 9000m water. It was amazing but a bit scary being in the deep water with nothing but blue underneath you, getting darker and darker. Once we were back on board the boat and going we came across an area covered in algae-like stuff which was the colour of poo. We then took a sample in a bucket and had a look with the microscope. There was a thin layer of dead ones on the top and live ones swimming under them.

15/11/09 Land Ahoy!

At about 2:00 pm when we were all sitting around and keeping an eye on the many boats that were around us, we caught the first glimpse of land for 13 days. Then the loud shrieks of “LAND HO!” went all around the boat and Phoebe rang the bell as loudly as she could. The water is very shallow around here and we would run aground if there was not a channel dug into the seabed for all the boats that come into the port. But we had to wait for a boat to come and escort us in so that we could follow him down the channel. When we got there we met Ron’s dad who is called Ron as well so we call him ‘Senior’. His friend Gene was at a trip to some of the water falls in the jungle so we did not meet him till later. Once we had signed in to customs and got our passports back it was already about 8:00 pm and all of us except for Ron and Dale went to a hotel buffet where Senior and Gene had been staying. There was very nice food and we all had a great time.

16/11/09 A busy day in British Guyana

This morning we split into three groups to go to as many different places in the city as we could to do research before leaving on the high tide at 2:00 pm for Tobago. I went with Ron and Dale to the zoo. It was amazing and we saw lots of the wild animals that live in the jungle here. I saw and anacondas, jaguars, tapirs, caimans, otters, parrots, monkeys and lots more. In the zoo is a classroom which is visited by about two schools a day. Once the teacher had finished the first class we went to talk to him about what he was doing. In his room he also showed us some of the young animals he was looking after. There were tortoises that were a few days old and a five-day-old boa constrictor; he also had a rat snake. When we left the zoo we went to a pond and fed manatees. They are the most bizarre creatures I have ever seen. After a quick lunch we went to a place where a man was trying to breed rare birds and put them back to the wild. His name was Andy. He gave us a big talk about all he had done and it was very interesting. He had even found a type of parrot which was thought to be extinct. There is now a pair of them living in Georgetown. We got back to the boat in the nick of time to untie and leave for another country that I can tick off my list.