sy Timoneer

November 16, 2007 1200 UTC.
POSITION: 32 55.5’N 009 59.3W
DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 273
WIND: 6kt 035T
WEATHER: Sunny long NW swell

NEWS:
We continued to work our way through the local fishing fleet into the evening and night. The sea is still smooth with only a long NW swell to roll the boat from time to time. There is a low-pressure system off to the west that is causing the swell and is the major reason for our diversion south. We will continue to monitor the low and make decisions regarding course accordingly. For now the forecast shows the low moving south east and then stalling 150 – 200 miles north west of Tenerife with sustained winds of 30 knots. This isn’t all that much wind but bucking into it would slow us considerably, so for now we will try to skirt it.

The fishing has picked up again with one small skipjack yesterday evening and a double Dolphin hit this morning. We tried to get the skipjack back into the water but by the time we had him onboard it was too late. Dave is working on perfecting his fish drying technique with the ill-fated skipjack.

The crew are well and continue to work on some projects to take advantage of the calm weather.

Jim Duhamel

November 15, 2007 1200 UTC.
POSITION: 35 57’N 005 55.9W
DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 34 (3 Hours)
WIND: 10kt 200T
WEATHER: Clear cool, slight chop

NEWS:
After spending the night at the Queensway Quay Marina we are underway again. We departed Gibraltar at 0900 local time to head for the Strait of Gibraltar. The passage through the strait was fairly smooth with very little merchant traffic and only 15 knots of wind from the west. The morning watch was kept lively with the numerous local fishing vessels intent on crossing our bow, regardless of right-of-way.

For the passage to Antigua, we have decided to take a southerly leg passing between Gran Canaria and Tenerife rather then a more direct rhumb line or great circle route. We have decided this in order to stay in better weather and to possibly pick up some favourable wind. This leg will add some mileage to the trip but will save time overall by allowing us to make better speed for a longer part of the passage.

The fishing lines are out and the filleting board is ready.

Jim Duhamel

November 14, 2007 1200 UTC.
POSITION: Queensway Quay Marina
DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 222 (21.5 Hours)
WIND: 10kt 280T
WEATHER: Clear cool, sea calm

NEWS:
Timoneer arrived in Gibraltar harbour at 0930 this morning. The second part or the trip from Palma to Gibraltar was very uneventful with very little breeze or sea. The moist interesting part of the night was the increased merchant traffic from the Cabo de Gata traffic separation scheme to Gibraltar. The traffic patterns between those points is very well organized. While there are no official traffic lanes the east going vessels tend to stay south and the west going north along a band not more then 5 miles wide.

Upon arriving in Gibraltar we began bunkering and washing down at the fuel depot located inside the main harbour of Gibraltar. After finishing the bunkering and wash down we proceeded to the berth in the Queensway Quay Marina where we will spend the night before departing for Antigua around 0900 tomorrow morning.

Jim Duhamel

November 13, 2007 1200 UTC.
POSITION: 37 12.6N 000 59.1 W
DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 226 (18.5 Hours)
WIND: 6kt 020T
WEATHER: Clear cool, sea calm
NEWS:

Timoneer slipped lines at her berth in Palma at 1725 local time to begin her trip back to Antigua. We plan to make a stop in Gibraltar for fuel and then continue on directly to Antigua. The weather forecast is for light winds from Palma to Gibraltar, will very little sea.

The fishing has been good, starting this morning with a small skip jack which was returned much to the disgust of a few crew members. The skip jack was soon followed by a double hit of two 15 pound bluefin. The double strike was followed by another three single hit bluefin for a total of 5 bluefin tuna all about the same size. We would have liked to have caught more but the freezer is full and we have a scheduled fuel stop to make tomorrow morning.

We are on schedule to arrive Gibraltar at 0900 local time to fuel up. We will spend the night in Gibraltar and depart for the Caribbean Thursday morning.

Jim Duhamel

October 2nd, 2007

We are now at sea on passage from Nice to Palma, Mallorca, a total distance of about 365 miles. We completed our Riviera cruise in Nice yesterday and the guests flew home from there. The whole trip was very successful and everyone had a great time. We really lucked out with the weather and the dockage which was in very short supply due to various boat shows and classic yacht regattas that were taking place at the same time. We managed to get space for a couple of nights in San Remo, anchored off Monaco for two calm nights and then got stuck in St Tropez as the port was closed due to strong winds – some things are tough aren’t they?
We have just seen a big pod of pilot whales close aboard and also lost a fish when the line broke. We are hoping to catch some tuna but dorado are also in season I believe…..
The weather is fantastic and we expect to be in Palma around lunchtime tomorrow. We will stay in Palma until about mid November doing maintenance work and then set off for Antigua where we are taking part in the Super Yacht Cup in December.
All is well on board.
PHil

10th September 2007 – Marseilles, France.

Since the Super Yacht Regatta in Palma we have been docked there doing maintenance work. The boat was hauled and painted as well as prop and thruster repairs. Back in the water the boat was tented and the whole decks recaulked – a daunting project that took 6 weeks. We also took care of both exterior and interior varnish, painted out the inside of the lazerette etc etc.

We sailed from Palma at midday on Sunday the 9th September after taking on 10,000litres of fuel (about 2,650 gallons). We had a good forecast and a relatively quiet trip across to Marseilles, arriving safe and sound at 1300 today. We are currently docked in the old port, awaiting the arrival of the guests and will then cruise the French and Italian Rivieras until the beginning of October.

We will return to Palma and then cross to Antigua about mid November.

Phil

JUNE 14th to 20th – Dubois and Super Yacht Regattas – Palma de Mallorca.

Timoneer arrived in Palma at the end of April and has been undergoing extensive maintenance and a short trip with guests to Ibiza during May and early June. On the 12th June our crew had all gathered in preparation for the Dubois Cup which consisted of 4 races (each about 15 miles) over two days in the Bay of Palma. Winds were light the first day but on the second day we had a great breeze and Timoneer won the last race, putting her in second position overall out of the 7 boats entered. The organisation, social events particularly the final prize giving party was fantastic. Ed Dubois has really raised the bar for future events of this kind and everyone had a great time. The old castle that houses the modern art museum was chosen for the prize giving party and the band featured some of the members of Dire Straits. It was a night that will be remembered for many years to come and Ed managed to raise about 150,000 pounds sterling for the cancer charity ClicSargent! See www.duboisyachts.com and also www.professionalyachting.com where there are photos taken by Mike one of our crew.

We had one day before starting the Super Yacht Cup also held in the Bay out front. 52 large sailing boats had entered, most over 30 meters (100 feet) in length so special docking arrangements had to be made to accommodate us. Put end to end there was over 2 kilometres of very expensive boats tied up in part of the commercial port which had been transformed for the event. It was a Who’s Who of the yachting world and a meeting of friends some of which we had not seen for many many years. With the sponsors, organisers and others involved the social functions catered for about 3,000 people and huge marquees were erected for various bars and eating facilities.
The fleet was split into two divisions, one race per day, each of about 30 miles on a triangular course. We do not start in the conventional manner due to the size of these boats so, like the Dubois Cup and previous rallies, it is a pursuit race with use of engine right up until your start time. Start times are adjusted each day depending on how you did the day before which works quite well if the breeze stays similar but in this case was a bit of a disaster.

Day one we had a light breeze and started at the end of Division 1, 27 minutes behind the first boat. We are pretty heavy so these conditions did not suit us very well and we were happy to achieve 12th place in our Division. Day two started with about 12 knots of breeze off the land (NE’ly) and we set off on a close reach at good speed to the first mark. As we got to the mark we were overtaken by Maltese Falcon – an incredible sight! Leg two will go down in the history books for Timoneer. Having a benefit of starting late we could see the boats ahead all sitting becalmed and stuggling while we carried our spinnaker on a beam reach doing about 12 knots. The wind looked favourable over to the right so we continued in that direction and sailed past most of the fleet all sitting there idle – it really was a strange situation and no one could believe it, least of all us! We ended up second in our class for the day so picked up a large trophy but that meant we started even further back on the third and last day – a victim of our own success. We sailed well in the stiff breeze and managed a very credible 17th place thus putting us in 5th overall for our division and 7th in the entire fleet – not bad! The final night was a big party – black tie sit down dinner for 1,200 people and the others at a free for all BBQ on the dock, a big firework display and a rock band that finished up at 0400 the next day. Everyone really had a memorable time but now it is time to rest!

Timoneer will stay around Palma for the summer with a 3 week trip up to South of France in September. We will update the website once we start moving again later this year.

SATURDAY 28TH APRIL – ARRIVAL REPORT

Timoneer arrived on schedule this morning at 0900 hours and we are now busy clearing up and closing down so that we can have the weekend off and watch the final of the World Cup Cricket.
We had a long night last night with rain and sheet lightening, quite a few ships and a head wind. Fortunately the wind and sea were not too bad and we had to slow down anyway as the berth was not available until 9am. Yesterday afternoon we caught another 3 of the small tuna so we are now well stocked.
We are in Varadero’s Shipyard and the work starts in earnest on Monday morning. We will be in the Balearic Islands for some time now and there will not be any more reports posted to the website for a while – I am sure you don’t want a daily report on how we sand the teak decks!
Regards = PHil

FRIDAY APRIL 27TH.
POSITION: 37 31N. 000 16W – ,About 40 miles east of Cartagena, Spain.
DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 252 in 24 hours
WIND: NNE at 5 knots
WEATHER: Grey, overcast with occassional drizzle
NEWS:
The wind that we had leaving Gibraltar yesterday soon faded away and we have been motoring in flat calm through the night. We were travelling east until we rounded Cabo de Gata (near Almeria) just after midnight and altered course to the North East. We are now gradually pulling away from the Spanish coast towards the eastern end of Ibiza so now there is a lot less shipping which suits us fine. We have 183 miles to go at Noon today so should arrive in Palma at first light tomorrow.
This morning we hooked two small tuna simultaneously but lost one alongside the boat. We cannot identify the one that we landed but think is may be a small blue fin.
All is well on board and getting ready for the yard in Palma. This afternoon we will pass the Greenwich Meridian and enter the Eastern Hemisphere.
Regards = PHil

THURSDAY 26TH APRIL 2007.
POSITION: 13 miles east of Europa Point
DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 16 miles in 1. 2 hours
WIND: South Westerly at 22knots
WEATHER: Fine and Sunny with only a little haze which is typical of this area.
NEWS:
We left Queensway Marina, Gibraltar, at 0830 this morning so that we could be the first customer at the fuel dock which opened at 0900. We took on 13 tons (13,000 litres) of Marine Gas Oil (diesel fuel) in pretty quick time and then loaded the 12 new batteries on board using the Mizzen staysail halyard. Each battery weighs in excess of 200lbs.
We were able to leave the dock at 1030 hrs and were clear of the harbour 15 minutes later and on our way. Europa Point is the southern most tip of Gibraltar about 3 miles south of the harbour and as we rounded that we hooked our first fish, a nice Bonito which we released. However speaking with our local agent who is a keen fisherman he told me that they are good eating (not usually the case with Bonito) so we kept the next one that came on board about 10 minutes later. We will try eating this one and see how it tastes. So two fish in quick succession is a good start for the trip to Palma where we hope to arrive on Saturday morning.
Regards = PHil