Nearly the end of 2008!

Well, hasn't this year gone quick!! We are thoroughly enjoying the Caribbean and should be spending new year in the Saints (south of Guadeloupe).
In case you haven't realised, we only update this page when we are on passage and now we are back to civilisation and internet access we will instead be updating the 'Journal' page of our main website - www.freewebs.com/jksailing
We hope to update the journal every few days with pictures as well as text, but this depends on internet access so if you don't hear from us for a few days fear not!

Day 25 - Puerto Mogan to Antigua ... LAND AHOY!

We had a great sail yesterday - we ran the engine to charge the batteries and took the opportunity for all on board to have nice hot fresh water showers! We also cleaned the boat in preparation for our arrival.
During the night we had some strong squalls - at one point we were doing 9.6knots ... we decided to slow down to save our pole (which is cobbled together!) and to ensure we arrive in daylight!
We are currently less than 2 hours away and should make landfall within a few minutes of the 25 day mark!
Looking forward to fresh meat, a swim and a cool beer!

We will update the main website soon with pictures, videos, and some thoughts on the crossing. We will also now have access to our hotmail email account again soon.

Day 24 - Puerto Mogan to Antigua

Another good day in the trade winds on Newtsville! Good progress made and we get closer by the hour to Antigua. By noon today we should be less than 150 to go!
Yesterday Kate cut my hair - a bit risky in the big seas but I look much more respectable now! We have also started the cleaning / tidying process on board to make the boat look a little more respectable when we arrive!
We had to change the gas bottle also yesterday - we seem to use one every 2 months so carry 4 months in total which seems ok. We have over half our water left and around 1/3rd of our fuel.
Kate's brother Paul has sailed his charter boat down from the BVI's and is currently waiting in English Habour for us so it will be great to see him when we arrive!
Aiming to arrive on Sunday morning.

Day 24 - Puerto Mogan to Antigua

Another good day in the trade winds on Newtsville! Good progress made and we get closer by the hour to Antigua. By noon today we should be less than 150 to go!
Yesterday Kate cut my hair - a bit risky in the big seas but I look much more respectable now! We have also started the cleaning / tidying process on board to make the boat look a little more respectable when we arrive!
We had to change the gas bottle also yesterday - we seem to use one every 2 months so carry 4 months in total which seems ok. We have over half our water left and around 1/3rd of our fuel.
Kate's brother Paul has sailed his charter boat down from the BVI's and is currently waiting in English Habour for us so it will be great to see him when we arrive!
Aiming to arrive on Sunday morning.

Day 23 - Puerto Mogan to Antigua

Another day and more miles ticked off! We are hoping to be arriving at some point on Sunday provided the current winds hold up for us.
The seas were horrid yesterday - the result of several days of squalls and strong easterlies - life on board quite uncomfortable as everything moves as the boat continually rocks and rolls. Also, Kate broke a tooth whilst eating a pear drop - not painful but still not pleasant so we're off to a dentist as soon as we arrive in Antigua!
Other than that all is well on board - counting down the miles and watches til we arrive!

Day 22 - Puerto Mogan to Antigua

Another record day yesterday - 141 miles! Today will be less however - more like 120ish miles. The wind has picked up and we now have 20 to 40 knots from the East (40 knots in the big squalls!)however the seas are also very large to match. The trouble with the winds is that you need to set the sails for the gusts so this means in the 'normal' winds the boat is going a bit slower than normal and wallowing in the waves - c'est la vie!!
We should be arriving on Monday we estimate and everyone on board is counting down the hours / miles to dry land and a warm swim!

Day 21 - Puerto Mogan to Antigua

Well, what a day! Firstly I would like to mention that Day 20 resulted in a record 140 mile run - go Newtsville!! Similarly today is looking like a simalar number and we should be just over 500 miles to run by noon today.
Day 21 saw the xmas decorations go up on Newtsville and xmas CD come out to play! We have tinsel all round the saloon and even some on the sprayhood on deck (although this rustles a lot in the wind and makes it sound a lot windier than it really is!). We also passed the 3/4 mark on our trip across and decided it was an opportune time to donate our 'half way hats' to Neptune as we crossed this threshold.
Confusingly we decided to change all the clocks too! We have been working in UTC (GMT) which was the time zone in the Canaries and also the time zone all our radio calls are scheduled by. However the radio calls are starting to creep back as the boats head west to make sure we are all on the radio during the day rather than at night for ease. As such we had to either move the clocks or change the watch times - surprisingly we did a bit of both! So we are now on UTC - 3 hrs (we will cross another time zone in a couple of days just before we arrive in Antigua) - but we have to translate all the radio times from UTC to 'Newtsville time' as well as the 'end of day position' time from noon to 'Newtsville time' - sound confusing ... you're not wrong!

Day 20 - Puerto Mogan to Antigua

Well, Kate couldn't have asked for better birthday conditions really, hot, sunny, and a nice breeze from a good direction! We have been making really good progress and with 4 hours of day 20 still left to run we have already covered 120 miles!! We have around 670 left to Antigua and everyone is getting very excited about our arrival.

Kate enjoyed all her birthday emails - thank you very much and also all the cards that were sent out to the Canaries for her via her mum, she got a 'happy birthday' recital down the SSB radio from our friends on Chilli Oyster who are nearby headed for St. Lucia with the ARC.

We've been sailing now for 48 hours without having to resort to the engine which is soooo nice, but will need to top up the batteries again today (we've been using the autopilot as the wind / wave combination hasn't been great for using the Hydrovane windvane steering system).

Day 19 - Puerto Mogan to Antigua

We passed the 2000 mile mark! Yeah! Around 800 left to go, plus we've actually sailed for the last 24 hrs without needing the engine on - nice winds on the beam with good progress being made in the right direction!

Big news, today is Kate's birthday - "Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Kate, Happy Birthday to you!!". Despite now officially being in her late twenties she dutifully got up to stand her midnight to 4am watch (we tried our hardest to persuade her to let someone else do it, but she is a stubborn one!). So today will be presents, cake and music to celebrate!

Got passed by an ARC boat yesterday morning - a HR54 - its taken them 2 weeks to close down the 350 mile headstart on us - not bad for a much bigger boat. They came really close which was nice, first boat we've seen for nearly a week!

Looking forward to arriving now - should be early next week with some luck.

Day 18 - Puerto Mogan to Antigua

As day broke we sailed out of the low pressure system we'd been caught in for days - it was quite dramatic - behind us big banks of grey cloud billowing upwards and ahead of us blue sky and white whispy clouds! We set the sails and found the Easterly winds again and had a good sail until evening. We had a small squall just before tea time, but with the help of the radar we navigated through a narrow band of it in around 30 mins and out the other side. The wind dropped after it however and we plodded on into the dark - by midnight we were down to 1.5 knots so we started the engine. Just turned it off (08:30) which is good news as we are down to 1/3rd of a tank of fuel so trying to sail as much as possible.
Less than 1000 miles to go - around 940, so fingers crossed we should be there early next week (Tues / Wed?)

Day 17 - Puerto Mogan to Antigua

Another day trapped by the damn low pressure system! Thats 4 or 5 days now of either no wind or headwinds! Rained on and off all day so we spent most of the day below decks getting 'cabin fever'!
Seems to be clearing now though and fingers crossed for some more Easterly trade winds to carry us the remaining 1000 miles we have to go til Antigua.

Day 16 - Puerto Mogan to Antigua

Another frustrating day! Yesterday we managed exactly 100 miles, today will be less though! We had light winds early on and flew the cruising chute, then the winds tracked round to the SW and we started sailing close hauled. They built to a force 8 for the early part of the night and we pounded into them. They've started to swing round now and moderate - fingers crossed we're finally coming out of this low pressure band and heading back for the trade winds!!

All on board is good though - fresh scones yesterday and counting down the days til we're there (only 1120 ish to go!)

Day 15 - Puerto Mogan to Antigua

A crazy day with thunder storms all afternoon and evening. Spent a long time trying to dodge the storms which had lots of thunder and lightning (not good on a yacht with a big metal mast!) and serious squalls hidden in them.

Had some technical difficulties with the emails, so please only send one or two line emails for the next week or so until resolved and don't worry if you don't get a reply straight away!

Day 14 - Puerto Mogan - Antigua

No wind! Just turned the engine off after 37 hours of motoring through doldrums! Making very slow progress now but we haven't enough fuel to motor all the way there so a line had to be drawn!

Very hot again yesterday and last night. For the last two nights whilst becalmed we've had huge thunderstorms so we haven't been able to use the radio during these to send updates.

Hoping the light E winds we now have will stay and hopefully build a little!

Day 13 - Puerto Mogan to Antigua

Well, here we are at 17.26N 36.45W ... for those of you without Admiralty chart 4012 in front of you that means we are half way there!! 1,430 miles down and the same to go - woohoo!

We made mid atlantic party hats yesterday and wore them today and made chocolate cake to celebtrate. Light winds yesterday that swung round from Easterly (where they've been all week) to SW! Then big black clouds appeared after dark and we had huge thunder storms, torrential rain and 40 knot head winds for 3 hours! When it went it took all wind with it and since midnight we've been motoring with not a breath of wind!

Happy Birthday to Russ for today.

Day 12 - Puerto Mogan to Antigua

Another day of light easterly winds. We sailed with main and poled out genoa the whole day - less than 10 knots of wind, but the North Equatorial Current helped us make 108 miles making over 1300 in total - nearly half way there.
Its very, very hot here, we had the parasol up in the cockpit and were fighting for shade (unusual from 3 brown people who like sun!). Heard on the net this morning that most of our friends are leaving today / tomorrow either from the Verdes or La Gomera so will be good to speak to them whilst they are underway and see if they have any more wind than us!