Over 6000 miles of sea

Position: 22,31.12N , 24,19.45W Speed: 7 knots, Course: 352 deg. UTC Time: 07. August 2006 15:05 Steady north easterly wind coming off the Azores high. Means we are heading 350 degrees making 7 knots. Tack over sometime tonight and if the winds are constant that will take us into the Canaries then we can tack again to Madeira. Moderate sea, sunny intervals. It's losing the romance. Just saved another flying fish intent on hitching a ride to its death.

Position: 19,36.65N , 23,14.88W Speed: 7 knots, Course: 318 deg. UTC Time: 06. August 2006 12:16 On route for Madeira. Wind up to 25 knots today. Swells of 3 metres. Rough sea. Pointing so very wet boat outside. Sunny though. Good fun on deck with the warmth of the sun and the waves crashing over the bow. Down below is not quite so nice. Each time the bow slams into a wave you can feel yourself leaving the floor and becoming weightless for an instance. Annoying when you are trying to sleep or type... And noisy too. Hope you guys enjoyed the Big Chill.

Position: 16,41.0N , 23,19.93W Speed: 7 knots, Course: 301 deg. UTC Time: 04. August 2006 12:47 It was a long time coming but we are now nearly through the Cape Verde Islands. We left Boavista and Sal to stbd and the rest to port. Shame we did not have the time to stop in. I am sure they would have been interesting places to hang out in for a while. Did not get to see much of them at all. Boavista seemed to have a high peak but it was night so we did not see anything of the island. Have seen some dolphins though and a couple of large whales. Still lots of flying fish and since we were near the islands more birds. Now we are heading north, north west, towards Madeira. The sun has come out, it's warm, the nights are pleasant, the moon is out again and the stars have appeared now that the blanket cloud cover has left us. We are still pointing into the wind though which is a pity. It would be lovely to come home on a run but alas can't ask for everything. I am now getting to the st...

Position: 14,18.1N , 21,4.41W Speed: 7 knots, Course: 310 deg. UTC Time: 03. August 2006 08:47 Pointing high towards the Canaries just east of the Cape Verde Islands heading for Madeira. Still not north of them yet. Sea rough, cloudy, rain and wet. 2 reefs in Main and Genoa. Once past Cape Verdes may bare away to make easier sailing and tack back over later on a reach. Makes it longer but easier on us and the boat.

Position: 12,42.4N , 19,17.35W Speed: 7 knots, Course: 27 deg. UTC Time: 02. August 2006 08:53 log 4012 For the past 48 hours we have been getting unforcasted 20-25 knot westerlies accompanied by rain and more rain. This has meant that we are getting to our mark just east of the Cape Verde Islands in good time even though it seems like it has been ages. We are on a close reach so the yacht is leaning over (too much) and waves crash over the bow, down the side, drenching us in loads of warm Atlantic water. This means we have not been dry for a couple of days and down below is getting very musty and quite frankly nausious. Oh for some blue sky and warm sun again. It's all good extreme sport.

Position: 4,59.8N , 16,43.83W Speed: 5 knots, Course: 309 deg. UTC Time: 30. July 2006 13:49 3538 log from Cape Town. We are getting into a busy shipping area of the Atlantic now. Four ships in the last 6 hours which is four more than we have seen since St Helena. Weather has stayed cloudy and we went through 5 hours of rain last night. It was warm so it was actually refreshing and a chance to get rid of the salt. Couple more little problems that are sent to try us. All fixable but just slows us down a bit. At the moment we are only going at 7 knots which means at this rate we will be close to Madeira by the 18th which is my deadline so I can get back to London in time for our flights to France for Al's wedding. Otherwise all ticks along as usual. Daily routine of watches, lunch at noon, dinner at 20:00, breakfast at 08:00. We are both getting to the stage where we would love some variety in the diet. We still have some fresh oranges and apples though they are on there last legs. T...

This photo was taken shortly after leaving Cape Town. Alison wants to know why I look more like a fireman than a sailor! She thinks I should be wearing a white uniform, or at the very least a blue and white outfit. No up-to-date photos yet of us in warmer climes. Watch this space...

Position: 2,9.26N , 15,3.54W Speed: 9 knots, Course: 19 deg. UTC Time: 29. July 2006 12:52 3362 log Well the corner has turned, so to speak, we are now nearing land again. Africa approaches on our right hand side. Even though there is still a bit of a slog to get through what with doldrums and 14 days of heat. Day times are increasingly hotter and the sun is strong. Must admit I got a bit red in the skin since I have never been quick to apply the old lotion. Strangely we have only had one day with no clouds. Today is a typical day with fluffy clouds over there and rather more menacing larger dark ones over here. At least we are still getting some wind. Quite a decent bit of it actually. The fear is we hit the doldrums and are bobbing around without wind for days on end. It is inevitable. Last night was the strangest yet. We had complete cloud cover so no stars hence no light and a calm, calm sea. It was so dark and eerie. Usually there is quite a lot of light around either from the whi...

Position: 0,0.44N , 15,22.33W Speed: 8 knots, Course: 1 deg. UTC Time: 28. July 2006 17:33 Just crossed the line (the equator). You know how much I like that sort of thing. I am supposed to now do a manner of horrible things to Jon since he has never crossed the line and Neptune is entrusting me to carry out the ceremony infront of all bears, shellbacks, mermaids and mariners to admit the new mariner into his realm. But alas I don't think I am going to be so nasty but I will present him with a certificate I made earlier before leaving the UK. So back in the northern hemisphere - you don't know how lucky you are, boy....

Position: 1,9.64S , 14,43.51W Speed: 8 knots, Course: 329 deg. UTC Time: 28. July 2006 07:59 log 3152 I think Merf's instructions must have paid off since Jon decided that we could put the aysemetric spinaker up. This has increased our boat speed by about 30% so I am a happy bunny. I was getting very bored of the slow pace. It does help that the swell is few and far between and the wave heights are running about 1 metre. Perfect conditions. So now we have a boat that is running to normal again leaving me free to read a little more of my book, think about the forthcoming project in Bournemouth, watch for shooting stars (loads), dolphins (rare), flying fish (every minute) and appreciate how lucky I am to get to do stuff like this. It was about 32 years ago I crossed the equator at about this spot while on one of the exotic summer holidays my family had the oportunity to take when my dad was at sea. The vessel I was on then was a rather large super tanker powered by 250,000hp engines....

Position: 3,47.13S , 12,48.4W Speed: 6 knots, Course: 296 deg. UTC Time: 27. July 2006 10:11 log reads 2979 from Cape Town. Hi all, seems as if I may have caused a bit of concern due to the content of my blog entry (One of the reasons I did not want to have any communication at all on this trip since it can lead to confusion and unneeded worry). Have no fear we are all, boat included, doing fine. Sort of. Look there are always going to be teething proplems with new things and there are just a few teething problems with this one. Jon has done a great job in fixing the auto pilot mounting by cutting a 4 inch square piece from the anchor and attached it to the mouting for the pilot. After 36 hourse of hand steering we turned it on and hour ago and it is working like a dream. Doesn't answer the question why did the auto pilot mount go in the first place but alas these thing can happen. Probably a mixture of stiff steering mechanisms and a weak mounting bracket. Sure that will get figur...

Position: 8,17.13S , 10,24.69W Speed: 3 knots, Course: 256 deg. UTC Time: 25. July 2006 14:59 logged distance 2685 since CT Not going very fast since we have come up with another proplem. The auto pilot mounts were working loose. Add that to the electrics smartbox which is not charging one set of batteries, the rip in the genoa, the lost Solent sail, the bob stay that has worked itself loose leaving the bow sprit bouncing up and down, two of the jammers that are not holding the ropes and it all adds up to a bit of a mess. Plus the fact that when the spinaker is up the pilot can't handle it when the boat comes down the face of a wave. So we have been sailing with a main and a storm jib! Either the boat is badly designed or something is not right here. Life is about solutions. Very hot though under the tropical sun. Surely I can get off now. Someone else want a shot?

Position: 12,36.7S , 7,54.84W Speed: 8 knots, Course: 333 deg. UTC Time: 23. July 2006 20:29 Left St Helena just over 24 hours ago, Saturday at 3pm. Since then we have lost a sail over board when it was washed out of its bag when we were hitby a rogue wave and high winds. It was one of our two upwind sails and theother has a rip in it. So we now need to repair the genoa so we have a sailthat can point us into the wind.I didn't mention that we lost the tiller 5 days before we got to St Helena. It sheared off its mounting because of bad workmanship at the supliers. We managed to get a new part made for it in St Helena so we thankfully now havea tiller again. Most of the time though the boat is sailing by the electronicauto pilot which has been working really well. We are heading for the Azores now which is going to be a long slog. 26ishdays if we make good speed and direction. We will be passing close to theCape Verde Islands so I wonder if at that time we may stop off there. Otherwi...

I just checked my emails at the one and only Cable and Wireless internet bureau so a big thank you for all the messages from you. I am so surprised that anyone is reading this blog it was great to see the messages. I might put a bit more effort into the blog now I know your reading it. One of the reasons I like sailing is to do with the fact that using just the wind and a bit of knowledge you can transport oneself across a vast ocean, something that mankind has been doing from year dot. Of course you are at the mercy of the wind and nature but that's the whole idea. And we did it. 2000 miles from Cape Town to St Helena in 12 days. Using just the wind. I think that's pretty cool. Only another 4500 to go! We have been enjoying our little rest here on this remote island. Given us a chance to recharge the batteries, fix a few parts, buy more supplies and enjoy sitting on chairs, eating of off china plates and having showers. As well as having the opportunity to talk to other people...

---- Position: 16,57.1S , 4,25.43W Speed: 7 knots, Course: 271 deg. UTC Time: 17. July 2006 19:18 We have been getting some of the bigger sails out to play with which has been fun. The boats goes quicker and is better balanced. The thing is since they are bigger the more there is to go wrong if it were to go wrong. Fortunately everything is in our favour. The weather has become constant and hot. We are at the latitude of Angola now so it should be hot. We are in the tropics. Crossed Capricorn the other night. Beginning to miss some foods. I would love a bag of cheese and onion crisps just now. Looking forward to St Helena. Hopefully get anchored by noon. Then maybe we can get a shower and a pint. Don't quite know what to expect of this very remote place.

----- Position: 16,43.70S , 3,21.58W Speed: 8 knots, Course: 255 deg. UTC Time: 17. July 2006 07:48 St Helene is 1 day away. It seems to be a long time coming. Should be in the bay by 10am.

---- Position: 25,6.97S , 2,21.73E Speed: 11 knots, Course: 341 deg. UTC Time: 13. July 2006 18:59 Look at that, 11 knots. Not exactly ground breaking but pretty OK for just now. The wind for the past 24 hours has been a constant 20 knots (gusting to 30 odd in squalls) from the south east. Perfect for us but unfortunately the sea state was rough most of the time. This meant we had to go slightly of course otherwise we were surfing down the face of some big waves. Not recommended. But now we have near perfect weather and sea state so we can get the gas on a bit more tomorrow. Jon has been cautious about putting up the big sails but I want to get a move on so I will be pushing for more speed now we are used to this ocean. Otherwise after the last rough 24 hours we managed to clean up a bit and dry up a bit today. This has made us feel better as well as made it easier to move around our wee world. It wasn't very nice with the floors, clothes, sleeping bags all being wet. Bit better to...

---- Position: 26,45.22S , 5,29.84E Speed: 10 knots, Course: 270 deg. UTC Time: 12. July 2006 17:17 Sometimes it is too uncofortable to sit at table for any length of time. It has been a bit like that for the past few hours. The sea is big and once again the boat is being pushed and pulled and drenched in waves. It's fun though. It has got a little warmer so last night's watch was lovely. Still wrapped up in the oilies but the full moon was out and the boat was merrily moving along in a straight line to St Helena. The boat is beginning to get a very lived in feel down below. Clothing hanging on the 2 rails that run the lenght of the cabin. The're to hang onto when the boat is heeled but they are now the only place to hang clothes, gloves, GPS, torches and what ever else we need to get of the floor. The floors are now wet, due to the dripping clothes and the dripped water from the 50 5 litre water bottles. I know that I am smelling quite ripe and I have just realised that I ...

----- Position: 28,48.85S , 9,11.77E Speed: 7 knots, Course: 1 deg. UTC Time: 11. July 2006 10:29 I hardly know what day it is. I know that it is 2 days since Italy won the world cup so it must be Tuesday. Days of the week doesn't have any relevance out here on the ocean. It's just a question of are we sailing in the right direction and getting closer to our destination. At the moment that destination is the island of St Helena, 1100 miles north west of where we are now. Typically there is a huge low somewhere in the southern Atlantic which means since they are clockwise here we are getting winds of 20 knots from the north west. Exactly where we want to get to. Since yachts can't sail directly into the wind we have to tack our way towards St Helena. Well we have been for the past 18 hours and will continue for another 5. This makes for uncomfortable sailing. Heading into the wind makes the boat bounce up and down, side to side and the bow crashes down after a wave passes un...

------ Position: 29,53.68S , 11,25.49E Speed: 4 knots, Course: 258 deg. UTC Time: 10. July 2006 07:30 There's a lot of water out here. Jon smells. I don't. ----- ___________________________________________________________ Tiscali Broadband from 14.99 with free setup! http://www.tiscali.co.uk/products/broadband/