Cherubino's Atlantic

It can be cruel at times. We motored for seven hours yesterday with pretty much no wind until sunset when a zephyr appeared from the East. Last night we crept along under sail as the wind strengthened from less than eight knots (really very little when it’s dead behind you) to 10-12 knots as the sun came up this morning.

However, just as we were looking forward to getting going, a foul swell came winging in from the North (there’s a big storm off the Carolinas) crossing the standing trade wind wave train at right angles and leaving the sea in a most confused and difficult state.

Poor Cherubino and her crew were left for three hours being flung about in the most distressing manner. Pols and I shared our thoughts, which I regret to say were not fit to air in a family blogpost. The thing, of course, is that when you haven’t had more than three hours consecutive sleep for three weeks one’s sense of perspective can suffer.

Happily, the North swell has now moderated and the wind is up to 15-20 knots so we’re making good progress again. Fingers crossed still for arrival on Tuesday.

Tom

Position: 14.48N 054.16W

Wind: 5-6kts E

Course: 265T

Day’s Run: 125M

After a week of very light trades, the wind finally conked out this morning and we’re motoring West on a gently undulating sea under a blazing sun. The decks are hot enough to fry an egg on, so I’m dousing them with sea water every hour or two to keep the temperature down.

The way the boat’s winches, sheets and backstays are arranged means we can’t use a Bimini (a kind of sunshade for the cockpit) so I’ve rigged up a sonnensail to give some protection to the passengers.

Under the shade of this sun blocker Dora is sitting reading yet another thick volume of her cat (or is it rabbit?) saga with both feet plunged in a pail of freshly scooped up Atlantic.

We’ve less than 400M to go now and with the promise of wind setting back in from this evening we hope to reach Martinique sometime on Tuesday. Then it’ll be time for a cooling lager beer followed by a long sleep.

Position: 14.30N 050.10W
Wind: 12-15kts, ENE
Course: 285T
Day’s Run: 126M

The wind remains light and so we’re still making pretty slow progress, 126M in the 24h to noon. Later on this afternoon we’ll reach 052.30W and enter our fourth (and final) time zone of the trip, when we move ship time to GMT-4. In the meantime our supplies of fresh food have now been pretty much exhausted – Polly was found to have reserved the last half of the last apple for her own extraordinary breakfast – rye bread with peanut butter and apple!?! Such delicacies are long gone from the steerage menu, where my offer to the girls of baked beans and sausage for lunch led to a mini mutiny. Fortunately the Ginger Nut situation remains healthy so there’s no real crisis on the horizon yet.

For those curious about the technology we use to keep in touch, have a look in the FAQs section….

Tom

Position: 14.32N 047.20W
Wind: 15knts, ENE
Course: 270T
Day’s Run: 133M

We’ve been out here for two weeks now. Last night was petty trying with the wind very light and the ever present swell rolling the boat about and making the sails slap in a most disagreeable manner.

Daisy took her first solo night watch and was rewarded with a giant supertanker passing three miles astern during her stand. When I came up to relieve her the two of us gybed to take account of the wind suddenly backing 30 degrees to ENE. The breeze then firmed up to 15-18knots and we’ve had a really decent run since then. Fingers crossed that uncharacteristic vagueness in the trades is now over.

To celebrate the two week milestone a ration of F&M fruit cake was issued with afternoon tea in place of the usual ginger nut – thank you Sarah!

Polly

Position: 14.40N 045.02W
Wind: 10knts ESE
Course: 265T
Day’s Run: 132M

Wind remains very light and pretty much dead behind us. As running isn’t a strong point for ketches (the mizzen has to come off as it blankets the main) progress is frustratingly slow. That said, we’re heading in the right direction, we’ve got plenty of food and water and fifteen more books full of Sudokus to solve.

When we’re not snoring, guzzling or frowning at number grids we are probably reading. Dora is working though a multi volume epic about the life and times of various cat clans living in an enchanted forest (good grief), Daisy is deep into Ruby Redfort, the schoolgirl spy, while Pols tackles ‘Transcription’ a novel about a grown up spy.  

I’m about half way through Robert Macfarlane’s walking book ‘The Old Ways’ – but if we don’t get some puff from somewhere I could be on the enchanted rabbits before we get in…

Tom

Position: 15.03N 042.48W

Wind: E12-15knts

Course: 270T

Day’s Run: 130M

Piccadilly Circus it ain’t. We’re about a thousand miles East of the Islands and the same North of the Amazon delta, continuing to creep West propelled by light and fitful winds.

At about four thirty this morning, with Polly and the girls down below snoring like the town band and just before the dawn’s lightening of the Eastern horizon, I raised my head from m’book (Adam Nicholson’s ‘Sea Bird’s Cry’, five stars) and nearly jumped out of my skin to see a real ship’s light about ten miles off. This was the first visual of another craft we’ve had in a week. Out in the mid ocean dolphin visits have petered out entirely and all we have for company are the occasional tropic bird, flying fish and a couple of superior type pilot whales who, heading upwind, swam past without deigning to register our presence.

Anticipating our eventual return to civilisation the girls are mapping out where they want to visit in the Caribbean – Martinique, Dominica and Guadeloupe as a first course. As far as I’m concerned anywhere where I can secure a croissant for breakfast and a rum and lime to salute the setting sun will do just fine.

Tom

Position: 15 25’N. 040 36’ W.
Wind: E 15 knots
Course: 260
Distance Run: 134 nautical miles

The first Sunday since term began in earnest in the floating school room and time to reflect on how teachers and pupils are getting along. We always start the day with maths as it gets the brain in gear (including the teacher’s). The girls have a collection of workbooks to use and I flit between each child checking and helping out if they get stuck. Of course much of the time I am learning alongside them as the terminology and some of the concepts (identifying prime factors – anyone recall that from the O level syllabus?) are news to me, but hopefully they are taken in by my learned manner!

We’ve taken the opportunity to go off piste a little and Dora has been learning about the Transatlantic slave trade and comparing her own living conditions to those unfortunate enough to be sold into slavery and taken on the Middle Passage, which is the exact route we are following. Geography has naturally been geared towards studying plate tectonics and volcanoes and which are likely to remain a focus over the coming months – we will have an embarrassment of case studies from Lanzarote to St Pierre on Martinique to Montserrat and beyond.

We also have the ad hoc lessons out of school hours. Yesterday Tom gave an impromptu run down of US presidents and UK prime ministers since the Second World War. I’m hoping this will put them in good stead for their appearances on University Challenge in years to come.

We normally manage three lessons a day, which is surprisingly intense as there are no distractions. I actually find they get along better with a little light banter passing to and fro rather than sitting in eerily studious silence which sometimes happens. I trialled a PE lesson one day, getting them to put on their harnesses and do an assault course tour of the deck but with the boat all over the place, I had to pull that one on health and safety grounds.

Best be off now. Lessons to plan……

Position: 17.22N 035.58W

Wind: E 16-18kts

Course: 245T

Distance Run: 150M

We’re making good progress today over a blue, blue sea under a blue, blue sky as we pass the half way mark with fourteen hundred miles behind us and the same ahead. The wind has moderated a bit so we’ve got the full main up for the first time in a few days and poled out genoa – there’s still a decent swell running so we need plenty of power to avoid wallowing.

The wind is likely to become a bit of a theme in next few days as the weather prophets suggest a big hole in the trades about 400M across opening up early next week between us and Martinique. We’re heading SW now to attempt to skirt round the bottom of the windless patch. Mind you, if we are becalmed a bit of ocean swimming might be a pleasant diversion- the water temperature is up to 27C (from 19C around the Canaries). It’s a spooky experience swimming about in water three miles deep, I always feel a strange sense of vertigo. Anyway the weather man might have got it all wrong – five days is a long time in more than just politics.