Back Down to Earth

Day 12 of the Return Trip

After a few days of splendour, the euphoria on the boat has calmed down a bit.

The breeze dropped off yesterday afternoon and swung around to a very cold Southerly wind. (read: bitterly cold). Shortly after sunset we had to drop our trusty kite, Florence Kite-in-gale, and put up the big #1 genoa. It's a bit slower, but at least now we won't be outrunning the fish.

The night watches were chilly but fairly uneventful. The moon was with us for the whole night last night, and didn't shy away into a shadow like last night. Turns out, we received a message from Raf's Traveena yesterday saying that she hopes we didn't miss the 'blood moon'of the previous night.

Apparently the best places to have seen it from were either South America or some remote position in the South Atlantic. Who'd have thought?

Day 11 meant that our own fresh-food rations were depleted, and we could start busting out the vacuum-sealed wonder-rations that Kax prepared for us before she left (thanks, Kax!). It meant that we could have pancakes for breakfast this morning. The pannekoeke that were made by Gina and yours truly were gobbled up nearly as fast as Vitoria de Carvalho's biscuits (thanks, Vitoria!).

We lost our fire for a while. Literally. Of the four lighters that we had on board, none of them would work. Not so much as a spark, which is all that is required to light the gas-stove. We found a half-box of matches which we counted out to 30. Which would last us 15 days if we lit the stove twice a day - PROVIDED we got it right each time. This was not ideal, as it would mean no tea in between meals, and if anything happened to even a few of the matches, we'd be resorting to induced electrical short-circiuts to get our spark.

LUCKILY I found something that would save the day. A little red Ferarri lighter belonging to our dear friend Andrew Pavitt (Andyyyyyyy!) that I thought may have been lost. So could someone please tell Andy we all say thanks he is a lifesaver. And tell him if he was looking for his lighter, not to worry. Brennan has it.

Just want to give a last shout out to some peeps - Brad, Harrison Ford, Thoris, Jess Rawly and all the friends and family who have been mailing us.

You are all biscuits of the highest order.

Brennan

Dancing in the moonlight

Day 11 of the Return trip

Anything that happened during the daytime yesterday dulls in comparison with the happenings of the night.

It all started as the sun went down on a rare clear-skied day. On the west it disappeared, and at the same moment the moon rose to greet us in the east - like a scale, with one side going down as the other rose. It wasn't just any moon. It was a full and bright moon, which first peeked through a perfect hole in some distant cumulus coulds, but then rose to dominate the entire sky.

The wind was still behind us at about 15-18 knots, and it was to be the first night through which we would keep the spinnaker up. We were making really good ground, enjoying the panoramic view from the top of the mountainous waves, before surfing down the face of them.

The moon was unbelievably bright, and was only dimmed by the occasional micro-weather system that passed over our heads bringing more wind. We latched onto each of these little squalls and Ciao Bella took off. Our motto for last night was: "Tristan by Easter". Our top speed logged last night was 16.7 knots under Dave and Gina, and we also had a few hours runs of 10+ miles (a good couple of those due to Ric D). We are well on our way to a 200 miler now!

We thought that we were lucky to have the full moon with us for the whole night - but there was more!

On our watch at 04:00 (our time), Raf pointed out to me that the moon was no longer full. A big chunk of the thing was missing! We watched over the next few hours as the light of the moon was gradually stolen away by the earth. Who would have guessed that on the clearest night, we would be treated to a FULL LUNAR ECLIPSE!? It was mind-blowing. We got the whole crew up to see it. I even stayed up an hour after my watch ended to see it through.

The best part about it was that, as the moon faded to that soft reddish colour, all the stars came out and took over the sky.

So how was YOUR night last night?

Brennan

Stumbling over mountains

Day 10 of the Return Trip

We are on our tenth day of conquering this mighty ocean, and surmounting all of the challenges that such a passage presents. We are currently: over

1000 nautical miles from Montevideo, where we departed; about 1000 miles from Tristan da Cunha, which is our hopeful stopover; and 2500 miles from Cape Town.

We have made some really good time in the last few days. We are chasing for a 200 miler (200 nautical miles in 24 hours). We are pretty sure that we've hit it at least once, but our chart plotter has bombed out, and our log trip keeps resetting. so we are not 100% sure. One thing that IS for sure though, is that this boat has been rocketing. "full moon, clear skies, surfing the massive waves, Ricardo's epic lunch... hmmm..." reflects Raf.

We have had a taste of some serious South Atlantic rollers. Looking backwards here is equivalent to looking down when climbing a cliff. You just don't. Gina did once while she was driving, and couldn't suppress a little yelp. The waves are big, but also mostly gentle.

We have dealt with a lot of rain in the past few days, but yesterday afternoon, Ric and I saw some strange blue stuff appearing behind the sky.

Today, the sun is out in full force, but it's still a bit windy and rough to hang clothes and mattresses out to dry.

Yesterday was another eventful one. Immediately after sending yesterday's position report and blog post, the *jargon alert* Jib which was poled-out pulled out of the tuff-luff, and while Ric and I were dropping it, the sail split at the foot and ripped the whole tack off the sail. So basically, we wrote off one of our sails.

We replaced it with the storm jib, poled-out with the full main. The breeze had died down to about 25 knots, so it was decided to hoist the small spinnaker and make the most of the down-wind conditions. We put a reef in the main before this, just to be safe.

When the kite was up, we were hit by an unexpected squall with wind in the high 30s. We rode it out for a little while at light-speed, but couldn't prevent *jargon alert* a broach when the pole-downhaul strop snapped. So with the boat on her ear, we scrambled to get this kite doused and packed away. In the flurry of activity, Dave cut open the top of his foot. So with our first broach, we had our first casualty. Casually, Dave cleaned it and patched it up with super-glue and a bandage. All was fine, and we were back to square one, but with an added reef in the main.

The second casualty of the day was the loss of our lucky Golden Rapala fishing lure. The one that has bagged us most of our edible fish. We don't know what happened to it, but reckon it may have been a hungry Wahoo. Pure speculation.

Ja, nee. Aside from that, everyone has had a turn to do some driving and some surfing - with Gina and Raf especially showing some great prowess and composure in the big breeze and big sea.

In the Deep end

Day 9 of the Return Trip

Day 8 was our lightest wind day yet. We managed to get plenty far enough north to escape the brunt of the coming low-pressure system. Around lunch time the breeze died off almost completely, so we took a few minutes to have a swim in the seemingly infinite and impossibly blue water.

Just after Raf, Ric and Dave were taking 'selfies' with Dave's GoPro about 20m from the boat, Dave took a dive under with the goggles to get an underwater pic of Raf. The next thing we all hear is Dave shouting: "Shark!

Shark! Get back to the boat!"

I tried to turn the bobbing boat back in their direction, while the three of them scrambled the short distance which must have seemed like a mile. We were all skeptical of Dave claims to have seen a shark in the middle of the ocean, but it just so happens that in the background of one of Dave's underwater pics of Raf, there it is - a flipping Jonny. Right there.

A few minutes of motoring later, we spotted a turtle, so Dave and I hopped in and swam with it for a bit.

For the rest of the day we motored along at a leisurely pace, with an albatross swooping around us curiously.

On an early morning night watch, Raf noticed some black icky stuff in the bottom of the boat. It was oil which had leaked from the dipstick that I hadn't put back into place correctly. We saw the reult of it when we lifted the floorboards and it was just a mess of black slime. So I spent the better part of the morning (actually the whole morning) on my hands and knees cleaning. The fact that the wind and waves were up, and the Ciao Bella rodeo show was on again didn't help much. But now it is clean.

We have caught 2 Dorado this morning and we intend on having one for lunch and one for dinner. You can't believe what catching a fish does for everyone's spirits. Especially Navidave/Davidaloca/Guardavida/Dave

Moorcroft.

The breeze is cranking up. We have 2 reefs and the #3 jib up, wind on the beam, and it's my turn to drive.

Hope you're all having a cracking weekend back home!

Bren

Soaked!

Day 8 of the Return Trip

Greetings from an entirely wet Ciao Bella!

The past 24 hours have been filled with some very successful sailing, most importantly, in a homeward bound direction. Our day started with a modest 12 knot breeze coming out of the north east, but as the day wore on, the wind built substantially, reaching a rough 25 knots by nightfall. Although good gains were made, it was during the night that things really took off.

As of 10 AM UCT time this morning, our 24 hour run stood at 170 odd nautical miles. Most of this was accomplished a few hours either side of mid night in some solid breeze averaging 25-30 knots. A sizable 3m swell over our starboard quarter allowed for some fun surfing with speeds regularly exceeding 10 knots. Personally I attribute this impressive performance to our lunch and supper intake yesterday - deliciously fresh dorado!

As you would expect, we woke to a rather wet boat and this gloomy overcast day does little to enlighten the prospects of drying anything out. Never the less, the mood is good onboard and we are all chuffed to finally be making some solid ground in a homeward bound direction, even if it means another night of wet clothes.

Thanks to everyone for the messages so far!

Dave

What we signed up for.

Day 7 of the Return trip.

So we have now had 2 days of recuperation. It's been downwind in comfortable wind-speeds and conditions. We have had EVERYTHING out to dry.

From clothes, to matresses, to food-packs, to books. But before we could get complacent, our jacked-up shore crew pointed out that there was another low pressure system headed our way and that we'd do well to avoid it - lest we desired more uphill sailing. So we put in a gybe, working around all the bags and clothes strewn around the deck, and started tracking North-East.

We got back up to 34 degrees South a lot faster than we had anticipated. we are now heading due-east under motor and sail, waiting for some wind to fill in from our port beam.

We have taken off our bear-suits and foulies (a bear suit is like a onesie, but for men), and got the shorts and vests out.

With the possibility of some kak weather coming, this may be the last jovial blog entry for a few days. So we hope you enjoy it.

We had a catch yesterday! Shortly after the gybe, Dave/Navidave/Davidaloca noticed a tug on the  line. When we hauled it in, it turned out that it was Raf's SA Rugby shirt which must have fallen off during the gybe! Our catch-of-the-day of Springbok was disappointing to everyone except Raf.

On the topic of Raf, his levels of honesty are through the roof. He was on his own, dividing biscuits for the night watches, when he found that there was one extra cookie. Raf piped up that he had a problem, where any one of the rest of us would have guzzled that thing quietly and not said a word!

We had a blockage of the heads (lavatory). This was a big problem, but after a lot of toil it was resolved (see what I did there?). There will be no discussion of how the problem was fixed, just be happy that it was. As a result of this scene, all male-type humanoids are sentenced to sole use of the sugarscoop cubicle AKA the men's room henceforth. We couldn't apply this ruling to Gina - we are gentlemen, of course.

We finally had a decent breakfast that wasn't leftover broth from days passd. The calmer conditions facilitated Gina making some delicious french toast with an exciting array of condiments - cinnamon sugar, honey, fresh lime, Black Cat peanut butter (thanks Goldy!), and a HUGE tub of Dulce de Leche from our lovely friend Florencia (gracias Florencia!).

That tub of dulce de leche is probably going to vanish faster than Mrs de Carvalho's biscuits (thanks Vitoria!).

The last thing that everyone should know about, is that last night, Ric got a PK from a flying-fish. His exact words: "Ah! Flying fish to the back!"

Thanks for reading!

Ciao

Licking our wounds

Day 6 of the Return trip.

We have blue sky and downwind for the first time on this trip. We changed from the storm jib and double-reefed main to Florence (Florence kite-in-gale the little Zebra spinnaker – ed) and a full main this morning.

Gybed onto starboard and heading WSW. The swell hasn't changed direction in our favour yet, so steering is tricky. Sea has been unexpectedly choppy the last few days.

And this morning - Ricardo did the dishes!! Vitoria will be so proud.

So lets report on some of the issues we've had:

- tear near the tack of #3 headsail, about 20cm long, and wearing cloth nearby (all in the region of previous repair). Raf and I have repaired it quite thoroughly with some sticky-back tape and needlework that would make Aunty Sha proud.

- all bilge water in the boat has been drained, initially with buckets, then bowls, then cups (as the level dropped). Next step is sponges.

- food wise, we have been eating very little due to the conditions. I managed to cook the last of our meat into a beef soup in the pressure cooker. It's been a hit.

- we still need to establish the extent to which the water affected our food rations. Will do that next.

- we have enough drinking water to last us another 30 days. So even if the desalinator packs up, we'll be good.

- the engine is making a funny humming noise from what seems to be the alternator. It is possible that it may be the impeller too, but frankly, I don't know where to check or replace the impeller.

I think that that sums up the change in circumstances that that came with the change in wind direction.