Our winds filled in from the north and we shut down the engine at 5:00 am today.  The water has taken on a particularly arresting azure blue since leaving the Azores.  Everyone has commented on it, though they have become too jaded to even get up for a dolphin pod citing (I still whoop each time).  We are close reaching really for the first time of the trip, bouncing along nicely in the gentle but building breeze.  Dana took the helm, again grinning, and said it was nice to be sailing to weather. This puts us back on a heel, where we had quickly become accustomed to flat living.  Port tack, so the dishes stay secure but the refrigerators spew forth their contents upon opening. I had solo watch this morning, my last of the journey.  I was contentedly melancholy, both for Mary and the rest of the kids, all of whom I miss terribly, and for the fact that this incredible journey will come to an end.  I had thought I would be sick of the boat by now, the opposite is true.  I keep thinking of the Jimmy Buffet line “All of these nights I just dream of the ocean, God I wish I were sailing again.”  I thought this morning, every time I hear that, I will think of this last solo watch, one of the few moments alone on deck, in this perfect, crisp, northeastern breeze, the sails trimmed and the helm balanced for fingertip control, my dear friends only a dozen feet away. Thank you to my loved ones for letting me do this, I’m so sorry to have caused you worry.

Enjoy the pictures!

MJ

We are having a lazy Friday.  Our southerly breeze is dying.  Matt spent the morning coaxing 6-7 knots of boatspeed out of a diminishing breeze.  Oatmeal Sundae for breakfast.  Bill now at the helm motorsailing.  I tried celestial navigation for about 3 hours.  Man is it tedious.  My brain hurts.  Matt has taught himself on this trip and yesterday figured our position within 2 miles, an impressive feat. He now eschews the Nautical Almanac and Sight Reduction Tables and uses some cosine formula he found in a book. Glad somebody on this boat is smart.

Warning – sailing talk: The real wind direction and speed is, logically enough,  true wind.  This is what you feel if you are standing still.  When you move you create wind; think sticking your hand out of a car window.  On the boat the true wind combines with the created wind to form apparent wind.  This is what you feel on your face when moving.  True and apparent winds have speed and direction.  When sailing, your sails are driven by the apparent wind.  Sailboats like to go at certain angles relative to the wind. So right now we are motorsailing.  This means we have the sails up but also the 100 hp engine running, spinning a propeller and helping us along. We do this because the true wind speed has dropped to 6 knots, which is anemic. Our GPS has an “are we there yet” computer which computes time to waypoint at current speed.  The waypoint is a digital “x” that gives us a target to aim for, currently just south of Gibraltar.  With six knots of wind and no help from the motor the computer said “forever”, so we fired up the engine. The cool thing is, the movement created by the engine creates higher apparent wind speed and changes the apparent wind angle to make the sails work better. So in true motorsailing the engine and sails work together.  We have used the engine about 15% of this trip, which is very good.  As our South wind dies and we await the North wind to fill in today and tomorrow, we will have slack wind and we will motor, or motorsail.  We have extra fuel, but not unlimited.  We will make it!

The engine on the boat is not like a powerboat engine, zippity.  It gently moves us along at about 6-7 knots.  (A knot is a nautical mile per hour, which is equal to 1.15 statute (land) miles per hour.) I used to have a Yamaha motorcycle. I sold it because it was cool but dangerous.  It had 100 horsepower and weighed 400 pounds, and would outrun lightning.  Moondance has a 100 horsepower engine and weighs 22 tons, so it is slower.

Yesterday’s TED talk was Liz, on municipal water systems and waterways.  Very fascinating. Liz works for the EPA so knows her topic.  Today Tom and Cam will team up and discuss cribbage.

We have been asked for some brief biographical material on the crew.  I will be very brief, to protect our information.  The “kids” all went to BU and sailed together on the BUDs (BU Dinghy Sailors).  They are awesome in every way. They are all mid-20s.  Matt is an engineer who does HVAC design.  Jackie just finished culinary school and is a chef extraordinare.  They have been married just over one year.  They live in Boston but are moving to San Diego.  Cam works in Cancer research and wants to pursue that field.  Liz, as mentioned, works for the EPA.  They both live in Boston.  The four of them are mature and capable and helpful and neat, all important crew criteria.

The old guys are also mid-20s, just on the inside.  We are all startled by pictures of our outer selves.  Tom is a world-class economics teacher at a first-rate private school.  He is, to a large number of bright young people, the best teacher they have ever had.  I have now seen him with tousled hair, a rarity.  It becomes him.  Dana is a retired lawyer who now splits his time between Montclair and Vermont.  He was a successful lawyer despite being a terrific person.  He doubles as a sailing instructor on Lake Champlain and races his new J-88. He has fantastic taste in music and will trim sails until they squeak.  Bill is, no exaggeration, one of the worlds foremost ocean sailors.  He holds records (like San Francisco to Sydney), writes books and articles, and gives seminars on weather and navigation and safety.  He knows everything about sailing but never, ever acts superior.  He is one of the nicest and most genuine people you could ever meet.  Me, I am just a blogger.

You can see why this trip is successful.  We have, quite simply, the best crew ever.

MJ

We are settling back into our routines.  We are about 48 hours out of Horta and still have a nice breeze, though it is expected to diminish.  Beautiful clear skies and clear horizons. Yesterday Jackie made oatmeal raisin and oatmeal chocolate cookies.  Today we had banana pancakes for breakfast and Mary’s chili for dinner, along with homemade corn bread by Jackie.  We saw a small sea turtle, lazily swimming on the surface.

This story for my other kids, who know how I am about crumbs on the boat.  Jackie’s first corn bread was not to her satisfaction.  We were nibbling on it in the cockpit before she discarded the rest, when she suddenly flung it backwards, over her head, upwind and to the high side.  Already doomed, it then bounced off the highly tensioned running backstay and was shot back, in hundreds, nay thousands of pieces all over the cockpit cushions.  It was so bad we laughed until we cried.

We had fun with the spinnaker yesterday.  Perfect conditions. Dana, our resident sail trimmer, diligently flew the chute every second it was up.  He had the exact same grin he exhibited in 35 knots of following wind, surfing down waves. Bill breathed a sigh of relief when we doused it without drama.   It is a big spinnaker and can be a handful if the breeze picks up.

Dana found an old wooden lure on the boat and was convinced this was exactly what we needed.  Not 10 minutes after putting it out, he caught our first fish, the elusive Blue Marlin.  Apparently catching a Blue Marlin is a fisherman’s dream.  These sportfish grow to as big as 1800 lbs and can take hours to land.  Ours was slightly smaller, but Dana reeled the whole thing in by hand. We call him Santiago now. For the record, Blue Marlin are not endangered and we released ours.

Last night we had rolling and uneven seas, so that the boat pitched side to side in an irregular fashion.  It is easy to sleep if you are consistently heeling in one direction, you just wedge into a corner.  But here, you wedge one way, and then suddenly you are flopped on your face by a contrary list.  The best solution is to curl up in fetal position and wedge yourself against either angle of heel.  Not relaxing, but pretty effective. At least, until some object in some cabinet becomes dislodged by the selfsame forces and begins to go clonk-clonk, also in an uneven fashion.  You then awake to go observe the cabinet for the offending bowl or dish or nautical object, only to have it go strangely silent.  It is like hunting a night-time cricket. It took me 10 minutes to find and silence a tube of chapstick, mini-clonking side-to-side on my shelf.  Steadier seas tonight, so we all hope to sleep better.

About 725 nautical miles to Gibraltar.  Good night all.

 

 

 

We departed Horta at 5:15 pm on Tuesday, June 23.  We expect a 6-7 day sail to Sotogrande, Spain.  We are scrubbed, laundered, re-fueled and re-provisioned.  We have placed secret bets on our arrival time.  The 2 days in Horta were spectacular.  We are worn out and ready to return to our seafaring schedule.  Special award goes to Mary, for making it all the way to Horta and for piloting a scooter by herself all the way around Horta, the last hour in cheek-stinging rain.  She is a trooper.  It was so much fun to have her and Annie join us.

Great day in Horta!

We made it to Horta!  Our internet was down so could not post until now.  Dana gave his TED talk, on the Azores, as we approached in quiet seas on a beautiful day.  What exquisite timing. Dolphins put on the best show we have seen, darting under the bow and jumping with spins.  Jackie passed out ice cream and chocolate sauce as we drew closer.  Mary and Annie met us at the dock, waving.  Liz in particular is so thrilled to be here on this beautiful island.  We are off to explore tomorrow.  This was an unforgettable Father’s day.

Beautiful conditions today.  Idyllic.  Lots of wind overnight, we made 216 nautical miles noon to noon. Hope to arrive Horta around 6 pm tomorrow.  Milder all day and we spent much time laughing in the cockpit.  My TED talk today was on energy, today and future.  It is now in the hands of the next generation to shame the politicians into some real action.

Jackie’s interactive TED talk on bread making was a hit.  We got much-kneaded learning. DInner was delicious home cooked tarka dal, along with home made bread.

We are all happy to be in more restive seas.  The gymnastics of showering and other activities with constant movement can be exhausting.  I swear I became momentarily airborne during a shower.  I have a pee stance that would thwart Strahan.

Moondance and the crew compliment one another in quiet competency.  We hear the loads from below as we ease a loaded jib sheet and marvel at her construction.  She is built for the high seas but has the creature comforts. We averaged over 9 knots over ground the past 24 hours, often at 10 or better.  What we ask of her would be akin to asking your camper to climb Pike’s Peak while simultaneously lifting a Volkswagon onto its back while making it smooth enough inside to have a shower and bake a loaf of bread.  Best of all, despite her heavy construction, we were able two days ago to coax 7 knots of boat speed out of her, for a short while, in 7 knots of breeze.  Take that Winnebago.

Mary and Annie are in Horta!  We cannot wait to see them.  Mary is scoping things out and has already provided invaluable information, like we can get off the boat even if we arrive after the customs office closes.  I read in the guide book one startling requirement, which luckily appears to be only lightly enforced.  Apparently the Captain of a vessel has to produce for the authorities a “Certificate of Competence.”  Excuse me, but if we just sailed 2000 miles across the open ocean in 11 days, shouldn’t we be awarded a Certificate of Competence?

Love to all, MJ

Moondance Watch Schedule

Just had awesome lunch of Mary’s chili combined with Jackie’s shipmade cornbread.  Gathered in the cockpit, reeling off the miles, listening to some tunes and having that great lunch, we confess to feeling a bit sorry for the rest of the world, not being here. We are beguiled by the sea.

Yesterday’s TED talk was Matt, on HVAC and energy efficiency.  He is passionate on the topic, which is a joy to behold.  Very lively discussion ensued.We then had calm enough winds for our first poker game.  Tom cleaned up.   Today Jackie will speak on making bread.  We are all washing our hands, as this will be interactive.

We saw our first whale today, a small fin whale.  He blew us a kiss from about 30 yards away and leisurely dove down.

Finally, Liz exclaimed today that she was excited we were almost at the Azores.  She has become a blue water sailor, since we are 425 miles away!

Love to all,  MJ

 

I must give a shout out to two organizations who have distinguished themselves by excellence in customer service. They have vastly improved this journey by dint of their impressive efforts.

Jamestown Boat Yard – Andy and the crew worked tirelessly beginning last fall to get Moondance ready.  Big items like pulling the rudder were tackeled early and with aplomb.  Thanks Andy, for the preparation as well as the advice. We are making progress on the next to-do list. Also I should mention Phil at Cay Electronics did a wonderful job.  Stuff actually works.

KVH Technologies – they provide our satellite communications which includes phone and data.  They make this blog possible.  Their customer service ethic is always friendly, helpful and unselfish.  Someone at the top of this organization is a good person. They guide you on what plan is best for you, not what makes them the most money.  We have had remarkable performance from the link.  They have our loyalty.

Now back to your regularly scheduled program.