Day 11 - Puerto Mogan to Antigua

Its been very very hot but little wind. We've covered just over 100 miles in the last 24 hours under main and poled out genoa (fixed pole holding ok thus far!). Looking like half way will be in a couple of days!

Saw dolphins last night in the dark (well heard them and then saw them) - nearly scared me to death at 4:45am!

Day 10 - Puerto Mogan to Antigua

After a couple of days of good wind the wind has now died again. We had the engine on yesterday afternoon to charge the batteries and then overnight as there wasn't a breath of wind. We are now just about sailing along with the main and cruising chute up but think it is going to be a slow day!! Spinnaker pole is fixed and seems to be working well.

We saw our first ship in 4 days last night and also a large yacht that was motor sailing and got quite close to us but weren't answering their radio??!!

We have had abit of a change around of the watch systems and it seems to be working better. Roo now gets a full nights sleep and then does the majority of the watches during the day whilst Jonny and I do 4 hour watches in the dark. Before we had Roo doing a night watch and Jonny and I up for 2 hours each with him which wasn't working for us as Jonny and I weren't getting enough sleep.

Distanced traveled on Day 10 - 118 miles
Total distance traveled - 1106 miles
We should be at the half way point by mon :)

Day 9 - Puerto Mogan - Antigua

What a day! We recorded our best run to date of 130 miles, but at a price! We had been sailing with the genoa poled out to windward and full main out to leeward for around 40 hours. We were doing well and happy with the boat set-up this way. Just after tea the wind picked up a little but we were still going well, at one point touching over 7.5 knots! As I was writing the logbook after tea I decided we should pull the genoa in the for night incase it got any windier and replace it with the smaller staysail. Just as this thought was crossing my mind a huge bang and flapping sails were heard - up on deck the pole which holds the genoa out had bent neatly in two!!

The rest of the night went ok though and we still made good speeds with just the main up. Today is trying to fabricate some sort of repair to the pole using strips of metal and rivets ... I'll let you know how it goes!

Day 8 - Puerto Mogan to Antigua

A better day today - 124 miles making the total to date 858. We're making up some of the ground lost out in the light winds of last week. Been sailing all day and night under main and poled out genoa and making good progress.

Had 2 decent sized flying fish land on deck - we tried using one for bait on the fishing line but it went awry somewhere! We decided that the Tuna Mackerel we threw back off Gran Canaria must have swum around telling all the other fish what our lures look like as we haven't caught anything since!

Day 7 - Puerto Mogan - Antigua

A brilliant end to week 1! We had light winds so set the main and cruising chute and ran with that from dawn to sunset. Made ok progress given the wind strengths, but it died at night. Total of 91 miles - not great, and week 1 as a total stands at 734 - we'd best hurry up soon or the '18 - 21 day' typical crossing will be more like 28 days for us!

Whilst it was light we all went swimming! Roo and Kate put harnesses on and tied 40ft ropes to themselves and jumped in - they dragged behind the boat for a while (still doing 2.5 - 3 knots!) before shampooing and then rinsing off on deck with the solar shower. When they were back on board I went for a swim (Kate wanted to go first to wake up the sharks rather than be there when they arrived!). Water was really really warm - incredible, but scary to think there was over 4km of it below you!! The really scary bit was watching how fast your boat moves away from you even at slow speeds - there is a split second where you hope the knot on your harness line is tied properly!!

We got a large flying fish on deck last night - its been cut up this morning and threaded with a hook and is currently over the side - hoping to attract some fish!

Day 6 - Puerto Mogan to Antigua

The weather has started to get warmer and we are now spending the days in just shorts / swim wear! The wind was good yesterday morning, but several days of no engine meant the batteries were getting low so we started the engine at 2:30pm - we turned it off at 6:00pm and 10 mins later the wind died! Typical, we could have used the diesel to charge the batteries and motor through the light winds - such is life!

The wind stayed light all night and we mooched along at 4 knots or less. This morning it was very very hot and extremely light winds. We put the cruising chute up at 10:30am and poled it out like a spinnaker - it seems to have kept the boat speed above 3 knots which is good.

Despite the light winds we still managed a 108 mile run for day 6.

Total distance now run 643 miles (out of circa 2,800!)

Day 5 - Puerto Mogan to Antigua

Another great days sailing - logging a 128 mile run, our best so far. Haven't had the engine on since the fishing net incident on Thursday night the wind has been so consistent. However have had to put it on this afternoon (Day 6) to charge the batteries.

Day 5 had good winds, from the ENE between 15 and 25 knots. The winds picked up a lot just after dark and we put a reef in the mainsail. Still sailing under mainsail and poled out staysail which seems well balanced and reasonable performance (we could probably gain an extra 10 - 15 miles per day using the genoa but would have to be much more alert to gusts and squalls). Kate had thunder and lightning over midnight and had the GPS and VHF in the oven again just in case. She also saw a strange boat which passed down our port side and flashed lights at us - not sure who or what it was!

The Hydrovane is proving excellent and we haven't used the autopilot at all apart from when running the engine.

We are now trying to force our way more West having got into the trade wind belt, however we are trying to keep the wind on the aft quarter rather than dead behind us for better motion and so we are either sailing WSW or WNW, so WSW it is!

Day 4 - Puerto Mogan to Antigua

Another good 24hrs sailing with full main and stay sail up and the hydrovane steering. The swell has been abit larger the last 24hrs making life abit more difficult!!

Everyone is settling in well to life on board.

The SSB (long range) radio has been great. We have been talking to 4/5 different boats (some on their way to the Cape Verdes, some still in the Canaries) twice a day. It has been good to keep in touch with people and hearing their stories. There has been alot of successful fishing on other boats - but no luck on our boat yet.

Distance traveled on day 4: 119 miles
Total distanced traveled: 408 miles

Day 3 - Puerto Mogan to Antigua

A good days sailing. The winds have been abit variable between force 2 and force 4 but we have been averaging about 5knots with the main and genoa up. We have been using the Hydrovane (wind vane steering) and compass so haven't had any instruments on apart from the VHF to conserve power.

The weather has been sunny during the day but still chilly at night - sailing kit has been needed.

Roo has finished his first book but is reluctant to start another yet - wouldn't want it to become a habit this book reading!!

Distance traveled on Day 3 - 110 miles (this is more like what we would be hoping to do every day - ideally we would want to be doing 120 miles a day)
Total distanced traveled - 289 miles

Day 2 - Puerto Mogan to Antigua

They say bad things happen in 3's.....

After our fight at the end of day 1 with the fridge lid we decided to start the engine as there was no wind. We noticed that the batteries weren't charging properly again so Jonny had to change the alternator back to the new alternator and disconnect the charging booster ... touch wood things seem to be working properly now.

We carried on motoring into the night as there was still no wind. Just after watch change at 02.30 the engine stopped ... we had caught a huge piece of fishing net round the prop. We tried to get it with the boat hook but it was stuck. Jonny tried manually turning the prop shaft and this seemed to free it slightly and we managed to get it from round the rudder so it was all on one side of the boat ... in the end we had to give up and wait for daylight so that one of us could go into the water with a knife.

In the morning we decided that i should go over the side as Jonny had hurt his hand on the engine and had it all covered with plasters. I put my wetsuit on, put on a harness that Jonny tied some rope to to attach me to the boat and tied the knife to me .. luckily there wasn't much swell and when i got the hang of things it was quite easy to cut the net free. The water was quite warm although i got abit of a shock when i first got in as i nearly landed on a fish ... not sure who was more surprised ... Roo was very disappointed i didn't have the net handy to catch it!!

The wind is now a good 12 knots on the beam and we are making good progress with the main and genoa out. The swell isn't too bad. Hopefully this will continue for the rest of the journey??!!

For Roo's friends: i forgot to mention yesterday that the colouring set came out in the afternoon of Day 1 - there are now 2 pictures proudly displayed on the cupboard doors - one by Roo and one by me!!

Distanced traveled Day 2: 79 miles
Total distance traveled: 179 miles

Day 1 - Puerto Mogan to Antigua

In true Newtsville style we left Puerto Mogan at 10am, sailed/ motored for 45mins and then turned back!! The batteries weren't charging properly and this need to be fixed before we started crossing. Back in the marina Jonny fixed a loose wire on the alternator and we were ready to leave again at 12pm.

The winds were light initially before we got into the wind acceleration zone where we we doing 7 knots with just the main up ... we were really pleased with this til we radioed a boat behind us and they were moving quite slowly - only doing 10.5 knots - they were 3 times the length of us though!!

The wind strength died again night so we were only doing about 3/4 knots. A few ships were sighted and Jonny saw some orange parachute flares going off but got no response to his radio calls asking if anyone needed assistance??!!

Just before lunchtime we got becalmed and then had a fridge disaster .. between the 3 of us we managed to get the fridge lid wedged and couldn't get it up... luckily Jonny has managed to fix this and we still have a fridge full of food to eat.

A slow and eventful first day - hopefully the next 20ish will be better!!

Distance traveled Day 1 - 100 miles