Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Nimrod to Barbados, Days 1 and 2

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to Port St Charles, Barbados

Start Time : 29/12/2019 08:00
Position: Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Anchorage, Canary Islands
Destination: Port St Charles, Barbados
Rhumb Line Distance: 2670nm

Day One

Check forecasts for the trip, looks as good as we could hope for!! We can
see F4-5 Easterly winds once we get to the south of Gran Canaria that should
last for at least the first 4 or 5 days. Waves building over the days but
generally from behind. So anchor raised, stowed and secured and off we go.
The plan is to follow the rhumb line course (shortest distance) since the
weather looks good.
The first 20nm we motor into bumpy seas and head winds but once we get to
the S of the island and start to turn west the wind settles at around 12-15
knts from the east so the spinnaker is raised just after midday and the
engines are turned off. Near perfect conditions, making 6knts in calm seas,
all is good on board.
Late afternoon we look at the forecasts and decide to leave the kite up
overnight, a good decision since the wind stayed around 10-12knts all night
so we made steady progress. Towards dawn the wind increased a bit so we were
making 6knts or so. Through the morning wind increased a bit more but we
still have the kite up making 7-8knts directly to our destination. At midday
Monday we hadcovered 151nm in our first 24hrs under sail – we are very happy
with that.
Catering on board is awesome with brandy laced fruit cake, melon starters
followed by beef bourguignon along with tea and treats – not much chance of
losing weight on this trip.

Distance Covered to 30/12/2019 12:00hrs 171nm (28hrs)
Position at 12:00hrs 27Deg 10.81Min North, 18 Deg 06.37 Min West
Distance Made Good to Destination : 175nm (28hrs)
Distance to Go: 2473nm

Day Two

An eventful day on board – early afternoon, we are cruising along at around
7knts with the kite up when all 4 of our fishing reels start screaming line
out!! Screw down the brakes on the reels and quickly get the sock down over
the kite to slow us down, by now one fish has snapped the line and one has
got off the lure but we still have two unhappy fish to reel in. Rich reels
his in quite quickly and it is gaffed and landed. The second fish puts up
more of a struggle, it had already stripped nearly all the line off the reel
and there was smoke coming of the reel brake. Chris and Rich combine to
slowly reel it in, eventually it is gaffed and landed – two tuna both about
10-12kg each.
While cleaning up Chris loses the bucket overboard so we start engines and
turn around for some unplanned MOB practice – not a good result when the
bucket line gets caught around the prop!! We try to free it with gaff and
knife but fail, briefly think about swimming to deal with it but sea is a
bit too rough so we decide to keep sailing and deal with it when we get a
calm period. Now it seems to have chaffed through or slipped off on its own
so we are OK.
Just before sunset we are discussing leaving the spinnaker up for the night
again when there is a big bang from up front and the spinnaker rips from the
top to about halfway down the sail, lots of fabric flapping around. We get
the sock down and recover the kite onto the trampoline and then into the
cockpit. Just time before dark to get two poles rigged and the headsails
deployed wing and wing on the poles, now sailing along comfortably at around
6knts.
The spinnaker looks to have chafed on the snuffer ring near the head of the
sail and this must have started the rip, once started it went across the
head and straight down the other side of the sail. Repairs have started this
morning and are going well, good job we have the sewing machine from making
the mainsail.
Wind eased a bit overnight but the sea state is a bit bumpier than our first
night, wind increases a bit towards dawn so we are making 6.5 to 7knts.
Through the morning of Tuesday the wind is just S of East at about 16-18knts
so we are making about 7.5knts though the seas are a bit rolly.

24hr Distance Covered to 31/12/2019 12:00 : 158nm
Position at 12:00hrs 26Deg 14.40Min North, 20 Deg 48.23 Min West
24hr Distance Made Good to Destination : 153nm
Distance to Go: 2320nm

We also have a message for Suzzie from Rosie Skye, they are having trouble
with the Iridium Go system and are not sure if messages and position reports
are being sent properly. All is well with them and if you are not getting
the expected updates it is due to electronic gremlins and not because
anything is wrong on Rosie Skye. Suzzie, please pass this info to friends
and family just to be sure everyone knows all is well.

Sunday, December 29, 2019

Nimrod Departs from Las Palmas

We are on our way to Barbados!!
We left Las Palmas de Gran Canaria at 0800hrs this morning with a lovely sunrise to help us on our way.
A bit of a lumpy start with F3 SE winds on the nose and a lumpy sea state to make for a bouncy start to our trip. We are motoring down the E side of Gran Canaria with the wind expected to move around to the NE and then when we turn around the south of the island the sea should be much more comfortable and behind us so life on board will be good.
We should be able to raise the sails and turn the engines off when we get to the bottom of the island – we certainly haven’t got enough fuel to motor to Barbados!!
Crew Ready for the Off Out Into the Sunrise
We have Dave and Rich on board with us for the trip, as you can see everyone looks smart in Nimrod tee shirts and raring to go.
We are sailing in company with Glen, Michelle and Nathan on Rosie Skye, not sure how long we will stay in contact but it is comforting to know someone is fairly close by.

Last View of Las Palmas Buddy Boat - Rosie Skye

We will be posting a Blog update every couple of days from our sat phone so check back here to see how we are getting along because we will not be sending ntification emails while we are out at sea.
Looking forward to our Rum Punches in Barbados.

Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Canary Islands

Hi all Sue here
Well the date is drawing nearer for our Atlantic crossing!! Yikes!! We have been in the Canaries now for 2 months and have been very busy provisioning and getting Nimrod in tip top condition for the crossing. My little head is starting to buzz now!!
We loved Graciosa, meeting many boats who are doing the same as us or crossing with the ARC Ralley. Surprising how many had small children onboard, I definitely wouldn’t fancy that!! We had a surprise visit from family friends Tony & Mandy, who were holidaying on Lanzarote. Had a lovely long lunch onboard Nimrod and of course a few drinkies.
Tony & Mandy Visit Nimrod Girls in Windy Fuerteventura
We had to be in Fuerteventura for the beginning of November as we had Gaynor and Alec coming out to stay. Unfortunately this was when the wind decided to really pick up and we had a very lively sail across there. Our plan to meet them in Corralejo and sail down the coast for a few days went out the window and we went into a small Marina in Gran Tarajal instead. They hired a car for the week and we saw the island that way, we still had a great time as always.
Stormy Shores Sheltered Shores
At Point Jande there were some really inquisitive chipmunks living on the cliffs that I renamed sea squirrels, very cute things. Apparantly not well liked by the locals as they are invasive to the island and were originally brought here as pets.

Chipmunk at Pointe Jande Practice for the Atlantic
I then did a quick visit back to he UK for a week to catch up with Family and Friends. It was a very manic week, including an early family Christmas and my daughter also got engaged.
Chris has been catching fish again and hopes to catch a few on our way across to the Caribbean but I have not included them in my meal plan just in case!!
As Sue mentioned above we have been working our way through a long list of things to do before we head out into the Atlantic, fortunately Nimrod is always well looked after so the boat jobs were all relatively small things – about the only major job left is to give the bottom of the boat a good clean and scrub so it is as smooth as possible before we leave. With around 3000nm to cover it is really important to have a nice clean bottom, even 1/4 knot extra speed means almost a day less on our passage time. The water temperature here is around 22 deg C, not too bad but still probably need the wetsuit for the two to three hours it takes to clean the hulls – be much nicer cleaning in the Caribbean with 28 deg water temps.
Our Crew, Rich and Dave, join us on the 28th Dec so I am anxiously checking every weather forecast to see when we can leave. Currently it looks OK for leaving on the 29th but it can all change before then. We hope to arrive in Barbados 16-20 days later, Caroline is preparing Rum Punches for our arrival!!
If you want to see where we are and when we leave then have a look at https://www.vesselfinder.com/?mmsi=235034855 or https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:5792913/mmsi:235034855/vessel:NIMROD%20OF%20MALVERN Both of these sites only show our position when we are within about 50nm of land so will not track our progress across the Atlantic.
We have a Satellite Phone on board for receiving weather forecasts and we hope to able to send a progress update to this Blog every couple of days, so check the Blog regularly to see how we are getting on.
We would like to wish all our family and friends a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, we will be seeing in the New Year out in the Atlantic and our next blog should be from Barbados!!!