30/5/2008 08:13 GMT

Another long day of sailing upwind, quiet pleasant today, sunny, but a bit chilly. Last night was the coldest so far and I had everything on I could, felt like the Michelin man. As usual my southern route to the finish as pretty light last night but I believe that it was the same for everyone left out here. I currently have no idea who is where as my comms had a major melt down yesterday. A drop of water had got into the connector for the comports and this had died and with it practically everything else, apparently they share a common earth! Even the computer would no fire up. Anyway to cut a long story short, I can now navigate and send emails but that is that. No Sat C, no AIS, and only limited data to Maxsea. Not terrible but at the time bashing to windward I was a little bit concerned, and why I don’t know where the rest of the fleet are. I suspect most will have finished at some time today, maybe a few tonight. As for me, fingers crossed for lunch time tomorrow, mines the cheese burger! Earlier to day I saw a display by the whales in this area showing off and leaping (do whales leap?) fully out of the water. Amazing to see, I have only seen this on the television, which does not do it justice, these whales are big! Had a very friendly pod of dolphins come and play in our bow wave for an hour so, they are very noisy and inside the boat you can here them squeaking/whistling away. Currently got the staysail up and a reef in the main, which I expect to have till the middle of the night then the breeze if forecast to lighten and back, I hope giving a nice angle to the finish with no more surprises. So as a summary of the Artemis Transat, have I enjoyed it! Not really, from the start I was on the back foot, my first ever solo race. Hardly any time sailing on the boat, I think we had it for a month before the start! But baring any last minute disasters we will finish. A massive learning experience, hopefully make me a better person for it! Ask me when I have a beer in my hand and wearing clean dry clothes!

29/5/2008 07:02 GMT

Last night was the worst seas we have encountered on this trip so far, certainly where I was, the Gulf Stream was in full flow. We really did get thrown about, I resisted the temptation to slow down for safety reasons. If Groupe Partouche’s keel was leaking before, I am sure it will be worse now as I notice on this morning’s sched he didn’t slow down either. During the slamming about I managed to get thrown about myself and my already sore wrist is well ******** now, some good bruises I am sure, under all those layers. Yesterday was another lovely days sailing, warm as well, but as the new breeze arrived here it brought with it what feels like a 20 deg temperature difference, so back to full damp thermals etc. Looking forward to tomorrow to see who gets to the finish first of the chasing pack, should make for interesting viewing.

26/5/2008 19:58 GMT

So, after the past few days of pretty nasty weather, constant drizzle and bad visibility. Today has been a bit of a shock to the system, bright warm sunshine! The cockpit of the boat resembles a Chinese laundry with every bit of kit I have trying to dry itself out before the sun surely goes and we are back to the grey misery that we know. Finally it is cold now especially at night, I can’t believe that the rest of the trip has been so warm for May. With the miles slowly winding down, I for one will be very happy to cross the finish line, whenever that may be. As luck would have it a patch of light fickle winds has parked itself between me and the finish, I hope I don’t stop there for too many hours, I think I have over paid that tax on this trip. Last night lived up to expectation round these parts, very calm doing 4kts, which we had been for a couple of hours, from nowhere we had torrential rain and 20kts of wind, I certainly had my hands full sorting out that small problem. Change headsails, reef in the main, fill the ballast, all designed to get you, when at your lowest ebb. The dolphins came to visit last night as well, the phosphorescence was very bright, as they buzzed the boat a great sight but sadly you can’t film it (well I can’t)they look like torpedoes as they accelerate towards the boat. The Whales around here seem very unfazed by boats and I had to take avoiding action to miss a whale and its calf!

25/5/2008 18:54 GMT

Having worked so hard to gain back the miles on the way to the ice gate, yesterday afternoon I got done over by a rain cloud which left me pretty much becalmed and a totally different wind direction, I can’t believe that I am becalmed again while everybody else is in good breeze. It took hours for the wind to come back and finally get sailing in the right direction. Once it was dark, all I could see where ominous clouds all around me and it was a pretty horrible night’s sailing. These clouds had a lot of wind in them and freezing rain! So imagine I am in the cockpit, you know the wind is on the way but you can’t see it. Wham…it has arrived and the boat takes off with me easing main sheet and jib sheet to keep her upright, within seconds you can’t see a thing for the rain, luckily this doesn’t bother the pilot too much. So we head off in the pitch black and zero visibility at a rate of knots in almost the right direction. Throw in a few claps of thunder and lightning and you have the picture. Not very relaxing to say the least. Once the squall passed the wind dropped right off and it took ages to sort itself out. I think we had three of these in total, I was cold and pretty wet come dawn and it was safe to grab a half hours kip. Today hasn’t being going well either. The Jib halyard has been chafing very badly as the spectra jacket finally gives up. I hoisted the gennaker and seized the opportunity to repair it. I moused it out, and replaced the jacket. Unfortunately the mouse line had been joined (badly knotted) and as I re moused it, the line gave way. So now, no jib halyard. This is a pretty big disaster as it has a massive wind range 0-20kts! I am hoping that I can hoist it on the fractional kite halyard and still use it but only to 15kts, I will have to drop the sail every time I tack swap the halyard over the forestay then re-hoist. So hardly flat out racing but this might get me to the finish if the gods are kind. If this doesn’t work I will have to look at the other options. I seem to remember the last few days of the TJV we had lost both kites and both halyards and still made it in, in good shape.

24/5/2008 19:31 GMT

The last 24 hrs have been pretty wet and windy, but finally the southern option has paid for me and especially Halvard Mabire. A chance to gain back a few miles on some of the fleet. The seas were pretty horrible, some of the worst I have seen. A bit like the Bass Strait on steroids, very big waves with no backs so some pretty serious slamming action. I spent a lot of time driving in the worst bits to limit the stress on the boat. With the breeze down this morning a chance to dry out, check over the boat and get some rest. Looking forward to this last bit of the race now there are some boats a bit closer to chip away at! I am very sorry to hear that Appart City is out of the race, very glad he is able to continue under his own steam.

23/5/2008 09:19 GMT

The last 48hrs have been pretty harsh on this area of the race track. After last night’s glass-out it remained very light for most of the day. Last night was very testing and has left me feeling completely knackered, not ideal with the forecast. One thing is for sure, to get becalmed two days in a row is not ideal on the results, I see I am not the only boat to have struggled last night, but as usual being further east has just made it worse. Now bashing upwind in 20kts reef and staysail, pretty uncomfortable and hard on me and the boat, The current is certainly not helping with the sea state

21/5/2008

Today has been the worst days sailing I think I have probably ever had. It went wrong from the minute that I tuned my sleep alarm off, and instead of putting on the kettle and getting up for an hour or so, I got back into my sleeping bag for an extra 5 minutes! 3 hours later I woke up to find we had sailed due south on a wind shift and were becalmed. From 5 in the morning till 8 we covered a lowly 47nm and had lost a huge mileage to the other boats, I know the boats just to the north suffered as well, but nothing compared to me. I would hate to go on about the accuracy of the gribs today, but they were very average too! Now I have to admit that I have overslept before and gave away a good few miles but not on this scale! So having struggled all day to get in to some wind when we finally found it, the next disaster happened. The dog bone(loop shackle) holding the jib up on the halyard slipped open and the jib fell down! Now this is the only way to hoist it and I was faced with a real dilemma. We had 9 kts of breeze, I could see on the horizon the new breeze it was now or never The only chance to go up and get it was right now. The one thing I bet any single handed sailor will tell you they dread is going aloft alone. In my haste to get ready I did not host the static line high enough, only discovering this once I was more than half way up, so I was faced with a free climb at the end to retrieve the halyard. Meanwhile I had set the boat up to sail downwind on the pilot with the main well eased, by the time I was at the top it was blwing 20kts and we very nearly wiped out, this was very sketchy and something I pray I never have to go through again. To free climb the last bit, I had to get my feet out of the leg straps and I was only able to get one back in for the descent which also didn’t make it any easier. So somewhat shaken and bashed about I am back to the job of racing, how many more mistakes can I make! The boat is very quick just being let down by the pilot.
Very sorry to here the news about PRB, you could not ask for a more experienced person to come to his aid. I wish them well.

20/5/2008 06:55 GMT

The last two days have been a bit lumpy and made going upwind a bit uncomfortable, we both seem to be holding up OK. It always amazes me how much punishment a boat can take slamming to windward. I have spent plenty of time driving to give the boat an easier time of it. I am glad to say that the work we did on the ballast tanks seems to keep the water in them rather than filling up the boat. The leaks seem to be better as well but I feel they have not been tested to the full. Looking at the weather ahead I think I will be finding out! Now in to the second week hopefully I can stop making all the stupid mistakes of the first, being tired certainly effects one’s judgment, falling asleep battery charging is not recommended either, a great way to sail extra miles while very soundly asleep. Looking forward to another day. Can’t believe how warm it is, I am sure this has got to change!

18/5/2008 08:20 GMT

Another day in the North Atlantic. Due to the laughable accuracy of the GRIB files (I am sure it is the same for the others) they have been no options in my book, stay on the making tack for the mark and hope when the wind shifts it is in time to avoid the next hurdle ahead. As I type this, the wind is finally not blowing from the ice gate, a tack will be in order. Apart from that, it is still not cold yet, a bit of drizzle, and poor visibility to help remind me where we are. My first food bag is nearly finished and with it the best of the food (the fresh variety). Tomorrow is the day for new thermals to celebrate the first week at sea. Look forward to the end of the black out! Hope I have not been done over by the other boats where ever they are! It is hard to know how fast to push the boat upwind when you have no gauge, remembering we have 2000 miles of this.

17/5/2008 08:34 GMT

The last 24 hrs have been very painful, all the miles clawed back have evaporated again as the wind starts to become very unstable. Hoping to get some rest last night was wishful thinking , I spent three hours going nowhere in the middle of the night , when the wind finally came back it was up to 12 kts not forecast!!!! Neither was the hole! At dawn the wind slowly petered out and yet again I was going round in circles , since then the wind has been fairly low and at times hard to keep the boat moving, the only good thing I can think of about today – the sun was out and it was warm. I am sure tonight won't be much better!

16/5/2008 06:23 GMT

Not much from here, finally settling down, managed to even get into a sleeping bag last night, rather than grabbing 20 minutes on the bean bag on the floor. Seem to be going a bit better as well now I am not so tired! The first few days were very taxing, computer problems adding to it all. Still having problems getting GRIBs from the Transat site, took three hours this morning to get two! Nice relaxing sailing today with the gennaker up most of the time, good angle for this boat, trying to get my head around the weather for the next few days, looking very testing ahead with the ridge of high pressure in our path, the wind direction has cut my options down. Hopefully the breeze will be steady tonight so I can get some more valuable rest.

14/5/2008 18:18 GMT

The last 24 hrs have proved to be very frustrating. Thought we had had good night’s sailing but could not have been further from the truth. I feel we sailed further than most of the class but managed to do a few needless gybes. Have been struggling to get any real sleep and it is certainly not helping my judgement. Will try to do something about this as my confidence in the pilot improves. Had some house guest for the night in the form of a couple of House Martins who flew inside the boat and slept perched on the handrails, not the cleanest of guests! This afternoon I sailed passed a pod of whales who then followed me for a bit which was slightly unnerving as they were feeding on the surface and gave the impression I might be next.

14/5/2008 10:28 GMT
The last 24hrs has been very busy here, a few small problems with the pilot have added to the work load. Basically, it has struggled with driving the boat with the spinnaker up at times. Luckily no lasting damage, but plenty of work. Twice I have had to drop the kite, get it out of its snuffer, do the repair, then get it back into the snuffer, before re-hoisting. This morning, the lashing on the tackline broke and I am very fortunate still to have the spinnaker. Aside from these problems I have managed to get Pos Maxsea working (thank you Mark) and have even managed to get a GRIB file from the Transat weather site. I was beginning to give up hope of ever managing as my Iridium signal is not that reliable, top of the wish list is a Fleet 33! The real bonus was the sun coming out for a few hours!

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