Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

35°18.2’N 45°10.1’W
SOG (Speed over Ground): 7.4 knots
Heading: 070
Distance from Bermuda: 988nm
Distance to Horta: 818nm

The stars were out during night shift. At the beginning of my shift the moon was below the horizon so the skies were showing their splendor. Unfortunately, as a result of our running lights failing a few days ago, we are running with our steaming light on which lights up the head sail. This prevents getting my night vision going. But this was 100 times better than the overcast skies we’ve had till now.

The moon started over the horizon so the skies started fairly dark. Jupiter was up and I was astonished to see a faint trail of light from it’s reflection across the ocean. I missed the moon coming up over the horizon as I was on my back watching for meteors for a while. When I turned to look, there was the moon, sitting on the horizon looking very red. As my shift wore on, the moon turned from red to orange to white.

I did see a meteor and a fireball. The latter was perhaps the most impressive I have seen. A slow moving bright light suddenly picked up in size and brightness and ended up in a flash that lit the whole ocean for a millisecond. The whole event lasted perhaps a second or two.

On the downside the humidity picked up to super saturation last night. Sitting on watch we all got wet inside and out. Inside the boat everything is again covered in moisture. Sleep was mercifully quick despite the damp sheets (fresh on yesterday).

I’ve been up again since 4am ship time on standby. Feeling a bit crap and will probably take a nap again soon. The day is looking to be another sunny one. We are seeing the mildest conditions of the trip so far. Waves are down to 1-2 feet but the wind is still in the high teens. Am about to put the fishing line out.

… a little later …

Best day so far. The sun is out, the seas are flat, and we’re flying along with the genaker out. We’ve seen two turtles an a refridgeration ship. Doesn’t get any more exciting – but you’d have to be here to appreciate it.

34°47.9’N 46°52.1’W
SOG (Speed over Ground): 8.4 knots
Heading: 070
Distance from Bermuda: 906nm
Distance to Horta: 906nm

Half way. Wahay. We just had our half way ceremony. A bottle was thrown overboard marked with the position we are at plus a request to get in contact with us. I have captured this on video and will upload to youtube when we arrive in Horta, Faial ? which is now nearer to us than Bermuda.

We are astounded as to how quickly we’ve made the half way point. From the daily weather forecast we receive from the ARC organizers we know we’re getting closer and closer to the Azores high which will slow us down. Today has been fantastic. The sun has been out all day, the seas have settled further with waves around 2-3 feet by end of day. We’ve been able to dry a few things out and get a few hatches open to air the boat. A lot more is needed to purify four men on a boat but this was a good start.

Today we had a quick play with my sextant. We had goes at calibrating the instrument by sighting the horizon. It looks spot on. I tried taking a sun sight but was unable to do so. It was high overhead and difficult to line up. I also had a lot of filters in place ? probably too many. I was a little nervous about removing them just in case I may suddenly find my retina being burned. Not sure how to resolve this one without talking to someone who knows what they are doing.

Capt John also got the watermaker going today which is under my bunk. That required me to sort out my mess as well as change my sheets which is good for the halfway point. I was able to get a good look at the watermaker aboard. I also helped John out with a few boat chores ? tidying up lines, troubleshooting some electrical problems and replacing some bolts we removed early in the trip.

Memories of seasickness, as well as land, seem far away. Can’t believe it’s been only five days at sea. From the sounds of things we have unusually strong and steady winds for this time of year. We’ve paid the penalty with the bad weather but gained in terms of average speed. Looks like we’ll get plenty of time ashore in Horta before John’s family join and we all have to behave.

One note. John has been emailing the folks at CatCo each day with questions about the boat and the challenges we have been presented with. They have been responding every day with advice and comment. Terrific stuff.

33°28.5’N 51°36.9’W
SOG (Speed over Ground): 7.2 knots
Heading: 070
Distance from Bermuda: 662nm
Distance to Horta: 1,156nm

Just woken up. Nearing the end of our fourth day at sea. It feels like a lifetime. Right now we’re being overtaken by a cold front. It is raining. Speed is down. Behind the front we’re expecting a a further diminishing of wind speeds. As I write the rain is really picking up. While on watch last night it was dry. Looks like someone else got drenched. I’ll find out when I go up.

The only drama yesterday was that the data link for the satellite phone failed. We tried installing the software on my laptop and had similar results. John has a Mac and was running the software under Xp emulation which could have been causing problems. Seeing the same issue on my PC eliminated a lot of variables. Given that the data modem drew it’s power from the phone I conjectured that perhaps it was diminishing power that was the issue. We recharged the phone to full capacity and voila. It was amazing to watch everyones spirits lift when the mail came in and we all got to read our messages from home. Hopefully today’s communications will be on time.

That’s all for now.

Fri May 23 02:34GMT (11:34pm Thu ship time)
32?31.8’N 56?27.1’W
SOG (Speed over Ground): 7.5 knots
Heading: 080
Distance from Bermuda: 418nm
Distance to Horta: 1,403nm

What a great day it was yesterday. My seasickness is practically gone. The sun came out, the seas calmed a bit yet we still flew along. We’re averaging nearly 8 knots ? somewhere in the region of 180nm per day. If we keep this pace we’ll be in the Azores before the end of the month. Consensus was we won’t sustain these speeds and will arrive around June 1st or 2nd. Nevertheless, even considering our one day head start, we are doing well.

I’m now on standby. After two days we’ve rotated the shift. For the first two days it was :

9pm-11pm: Jim (watch), John (standby)
11pm-1am: John (watch), Bob
1am-3am: Bob, Steve
3am-5am: Steve, Jim
5am-7am: Jim, John
7am-9am: John, Bob

(all times ship-time which is 3 hours behind GMT)

Now it’s shifted forward 2 hours so I am now on standby from 11pm to 1am and on watch from 1am to 3am. I’m also standby from 7am to 9am.

Being on watch means sitting up on the bridge deck, keeping and eye on the horizon, the boat and the instruments. Minor sail trim can be performed to adjust for changes in conditions. Being on standby means you’re up and relaxing but ready to support chap on watch. Here I am listening to music and writing my log.

Also since the last log. We put the fishing lines out again but didn’t get a nibble. We changed to a more northerly course to skirt a weather system developing diagonally east of us. This may mean we’ll be going north and the temperatures dropping each day. Each day we’re in tee-shirts we’ll have to count as our last as it could just well be that. We saw a few more sailing jellyfish. Not sure what these are called but on the surface they look like a bubble with a translucent sail on top. We figured they were having a race. Last highlight was seeing a large floating mass of something. I though it might be a bloated dead octopus/squid. John thought it was a large slug. We’ll never know.

Just checking my GPS I see we’re now 1,402nm from Horta in the Azores ? our planned landfall. Each 100nm is a kind of milestone. Problem is, our on board GPSs don’t agree on the distance remaining so we get to celebrate these milestones several times. I think the halfway point will be a big one. That’s still 2-3 days away.

Fri May 23 10:30GMT (7:30am ship time)
32?42.0N 55?14.8’W
SOG (Speed over Ground): 7.5 knots
Heading: 070
Distance from Bermuda: 418nm
Distance to Horta: 1,403nm

I’m back on standby. Squeezed in nearly 4 hours sleep since coming off watch at 3am this morning (ship time). We’re now sailing pretty close to the rhumb line ? the line of shortest distance between our current position and Horta. Not sure what the weather will bring today. Right now the skies are overcast but not too heavily. Would be nice if we can get another sunny day today.

My watch last night was uneventful. The moon kept me occupied for a while. The skies were mostly cloudy but had a few gaps in the cover. That meant sometimes the moon was not visible at all. Sometimes it had a big gap and the sea would shine a silver highway from the reflected moonlight. Somewhere in between sometimes I would see a patch of glistening moonlight some distance off as it’s light peaked through a gap I could not see.