If you're about to go to work by Tube - what would have on your toast for breakfast? (answer is a song and band which sang it) Going Underground, The Jam
Hang on. Where's the video cam satellite footage. I was expecting Matt crouching in the cabin with his head crushed against a plexi-dome wailing about how difficult it was.
All we're getting is some winging about fag lighters running out. At the pace they're going, by the time they runout, it'll be illegal to smoke on board anyway.
35deg 08 N, 44deg 39W. Para has done me again - handed over at the end of his watch with 15-20 knots of wind and romping along at 8-9knots. An hour into my watch the wind has died to under 5knots.
Good speeds of up to 9 knots last night means around 800 miles to go and with (pessimistically) 600litres of fuel we means no more fuel worries - we can motor the whole way and still have 100litres left. So I've stuck the engine on to make 6-7 knots.
The radar is still playing mind games - last night it decided to turn the screen off every ten minutes or so. After a few slightly heartstopping moments it turns itself back on at full brightness, and then adjusts back to lower nighttime brightness. Maybe it's an automatic routine designed to keep people on their toes whilst on night watch? If so, it's very effective.
Can't
argue really I suppose - a blank screen was an almost perfect representsation of the pitch black out there, although not quite what I would hope from a radar system. I decided to ignore its on/off scare tactics and it gave up after an hour.
This morning the radar is doing what it does best - displaying any especially dense clouds on the horizon. Interesting, but not desperately useful. Perhaps it's installed upside down? However, I tried switching the "rain" setting to "off" - and the rain stopped and the sun has come out! So that seems quite an excellent feature, regardless of any other shortcomings.
-tcm
Ljs' quiz answers - comments and answers by LJS himself.
Some people are born to set quiz questions, others have it delegated to them by the skipper. The idea came from comments about the boat's play list ("Ha!
Betcha don't know who sang this"). One or two questions were deemed too easy by the 'committee' so upgraded. I mean what sort of nerd knows that 'Little Arrows' was sung by Leapy Lee? Er, oh, that was me again.
Anyway, the answers given below are undisputably correct at 35 degrees north, 45 degrees west. However, considering the curvature of the earth, and in relation to the rectilinear nature of truth, not to mention the fact that we can't check anything, there is the outside chance of there being some slight deviation or anomaly in your part of the planet. Ahem...
Anyway here goes:
Who sang "Sweet Home Alabama?" Lynrynd Skynrynd
What sized engine did Godley and Cream have? 10 cc
Who sang "Little Arrows"? Leapy Lee
Which actress was Paul Simon once married to? Carrie Fisher (or cohabited
with)
Which heavy metal rock group signed for Atlantic Records? Trick question.
Probably several knew we were talking about Led Zep (also missing an a) - so that's the answer - even if they were a bit bluesy as well
Who sang "Hey girl, don't bother me"? The Tams
Which band had an album called "Dummy"? Portishead
If you're about to go to work by Tube - what would have on your toast for breakfast? (answer is a song and band which sang it) Going Underground, The Jam
What does B.A.D. stand for, pop/rock-wise? Big Audio Dynamite
Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd died recently- what UK city was he living in?
Cambridge. Almost certainly. I think.
It seems as if they are heading for another interesting meeting with dead ships.
[ QUOTE ] PAMIR was one of the famous Flying P-Liner sailing ships of the German shipping company F. Laeisz. She was the last commercial sailing ship to round Cape Horn, in 1949. On 21 September 1957 she was caught in Hurricane Carrie and sank off the Azores, with only six survivors recovered after an extensive rescue effort. The disaster received international media attention.
Almost exactly 36deg N, 41W, COG 70T 9-10 knots single reef main, full jib.
Bit more serious stuff now, we've had almost 24 hours of building wind from
15 to 20 knots, called a reef for last night and will almost certainly have two tonight.
Wind now 18-22knots, boat speeds 9knots occassionally up to 12knots, our highest for the trip. According to last forecast a small depression is due to overtake us directly, so winds will be like this and a little bit higher, and then presumably calmer, and then from other direction. There again, according to Tome who is in contact by sat phone we may get headwinds, boo.
Azores currently under 600 miles away.
The boat and crew happy, and all pleased that this leg at last sees a bit of proper sailing action. Sea is 6-8 feet.
Total blimmin disaster on the cookery front - both LJS (Sunday) and then paddy (yesterday) each made a loaf of bread for para's inspection, the flippin crawling creeps. My turn today I suppose, hm.
Both LJS and Paddy are keeping personal diaries about the trip, which I hear are to be published- although probably only on ybw, not a book cos neither of them have done enough weeping.
Well now, i've just phoned our local paper, who want the story- we need the free publicity now Johns probably had a month off and I've been messing up the business, so that should really put the fat in the fire. Dee
36deg 58.5N 37deg 07.6W a bit calmer this morning, but we're still doing 8-9 knots around 70degT in wind F5 SW.
The detailed NOAA gribs (weather forecasts) have been rather hopeless recently - two days ago small low was due to overtake us, with 25 or even 30 knots winds first from the south and then from the north, and 3-5 metre seas. Paddy and I had even practised for it by playing Ride of the Valkyries very loud whilst clipped on in our wet weather gear, very exciting. But then, in yesterday's forecast it was all cancelled! Para quite annoyed after spending ages poring over his puter with so-called forecasts for next 24, 48, 72, 96 and 120 hours ahead. But the wider forecasts did help us avoid probably rougher stuff further north, so not an utter waste of time. The reef came out so full main and jib since last night.
The sailing is ok but I must admit I wasn't ready for the blistering pace of the cooking. I daren't even mention the idea of using any of the ready-made pies, and I just had to make a loaf of bread else I wd have been the only one not to do so. We also put our local time forward an hour so I spent the day being in a bit of a frantic rush. Stew for lunch, and then a unanimous vote insisted on fish in cider sauce (again) rather than corned beef hash.
PWC played with the swanky shortwave radio contraption yesterday. Didn't get much out of it other than the BBC world service, so I played "Sailing by"
from Ipod through the speakers and we pretended he'd found Radio 4. We got the others to listen in but then -oh- the signal seems to have gone. Hee hee.
Everyone seems to be having a good time, and although we have loads of books only para is getting any reading done. I asked him about one novel he was reading ("state of the union") and he said "oh, it's utter rubbish". So I dug about in our library above his bed and found him "Salmon fishing in the Yemen" which has so far met with his approval.
Meanwhile Paddy is also having good time but trying to make it sound a bit arduous to his swmbo back home. But I think she is already suspicious since he let slip that he has ensuite double, the watermaker bangs out 100litres an hour, hot water, and nice comfy sleep even at 9 knot average. I suggested he might like to take the boat down to the Canaries over summer himself and he immediately said yes, although he will have to break it to her gently that the aircon only works in the saloon.
Thoughts turn to the second leg eastwards from the Azores, and first choice must be to go to Sables D'Olonne - to the yard where Mojomo was built. They could sort the starboard rudder shake, and a few other things could be added/fixed too (like full instead of pah only partial aircon) plus the obvious advantage of the actual builders casting their eye over the boat after doing two transats in six months. If this can happen we'd Ryannair back to the uk from la Rochelle. Second choice is probably Falmouth but then Jimi will have to fix the rudder.
Oh yes, yesterday morning we did a man overboard practise. Usual thing, I just threw a fender out and said man overboard. After a couple of close passes LJS suggested perhaps getting the fender back through the hulls, but I said that would mash the mob - and it's supposed to be me! He got close enough to rescue a real person several times but not close enough to hoik back the actual fender, so I did a bit of diesel-thrashing and rescued myself, so to speak. Actually a more serious lesson was learned - when pwc came up from his cabin 10 minutes later he hadn't heard a thing - so I reckon there ought to be a big internal alarm button on the dash which sounds loudly in each cabin and means "everyone get out on deck". Otherwise a real emergency means trotting round the cabins and knock knock then back up the other stairs etc. I don't know if sizeable boats (and especially slightly labyrinthine ones like cats) are required to have an alarm like this, but it could be really useful. It might be as simple as hotwiring a few smoke detectors to a dashboard switch.
[ QUOTE ]
They could sort the starboard rudder shake,
[/ QUOTE ]
I had the bolt securing the steering arm to the starboard rudder come completely out and drop in the bilge on Jeannius last year. TELL THEM TO CHECK THE BOLT ISN'T WORKING LOOSE ASAP.