Author Archive
Noon: Wednesday March 31st
Lat: 11 34 N
Long: 74 34 W
Days Run: 353′ since departure Curacao
Wind: Easterly at 18 knots
Weather: Overcast but warm.
We started at 0630 to take in the two anchors that we had down and cleared the narrow channel into Spanish Water, Curacao, at 0715. Nice sunny day but little wind and flat seas and we were soon making good headway on course to Panama. Within the first hour we hooked two good dorado (mahi Mahi) but lost one and landed the other weighing in at 26lbs. We passed a few miles off Aruba with its big refineries belching out flames and smoke and then hooked two big eye tuna, again losing one of them as he came over the rail. However we had enough for some very good sushi last night.
Today dawned dull and overcast with grey leaden seas but still not enough wind to turn the engine off so continued motorsailing with the wind dead aft.
We now have 335 miles to go to Cristobal at the mouth of the Panama Canal and should arrive late on Thursday afternoon. All is well on board
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Tuesday March 24th
Lat: 14′ 13 N
Long: 065′ 30 W Days Run: 271 miles
Course 237’T Speed: 12.2 kts
Wind: 100’T 10kts Weather: Partly cloudy occasional rain showers
Comments:
Timoneer is at sea again, departing Antigua for Curacao and at 11:30 Monday morning in a pouring rain shower. For our entire 10 day stay in Antigua while we were getting the liferafts & MOM’s repacked it has been breezy with intermittent showers. So we were hoping for a broad reach in 20-25kts all the way to Curacao and in anticipation hoisted the full main at the harbor entrance. As we made our course to pass east of the smoking volcano on Montserrat, to our dismay there was no wind at all? I kept saying to myself it will fill in after this rain shower has gone, but it didn’t and we had to furl the main as there wasn’t enough breeze to stop it flogging. As we approached Montserrat it got worse dropping from 7 kts to 2 kts and then going ahead out of the south west??? So much for the trade winds? We skirted the island just to get close enough to see the volcanic slopes of the cone boiling off all the steam from the rain. At least if we couldn’t sail we could fish, off the southern coast of Montserrat, Bevan reeled in a 22lb Mahi – Mahi which was some consolidation for our lack of breeze. The light winds continued throughout the night as we motor sailed with the staysail. By my 06:00 watch the sun was starting to rise although the wind speed rarely reached 10kts. We were pretty much surrounded by rain squalls and as I was putting the fishing lines out Penny spotted a water spout a couple of miles off to port. We watched it for four or five minutes as the funnel from the cloud tried to reach down to the spout on the surface of the water although they never quite joined. The spout dissipated and the cloud eventually down poured rain on us although we had very little extra breeze in it as the wind speed stayed below 20kts. That was pretty much it for this mornings excitement and at noon today we have 233 miles to go and expect to arrive in Curacao tomorrow morning.
John
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20th February 2004
Timoneer remains based around St Maarten, Netherlands Antilles, with various family and friends coming to visit from time to time. The next big adventure will be the Panama Canal in April. We will leave St Maarten mid March and head down to Antigua to have our life rafts serviced and then sail for Curacao and the San Blas Islands where the guests will join us for the trip through the canal.
When we have finished in Panama we will head up to Bermuda in May and then to the Baltic and Europe.
We will post daily logs when we are again on passage in March.
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Monday, 1 December 2003
Noon Position : 27′ 02″ N 020′ 19 W
Days Run : 269 miles 20 Hours, 40 Minutes Boat Speed: 12.5 kts
Weather : Overcast Wind : 20 kts Direction: 045′ True
News
Timoneer departed the Marina on Tenerife at 15:20 Sunday afternoon bound for
Antigua 2640 miles to the West South West. We motored along the Southern
break wall passed all the dilapidated Russian fishing vessels that are tied
up three deep. Once outside of the wall we turned to the South and ran
along the coast to the Southern tip of the island. The coast is covered
with big expanses of grape vines, and is very volcanic in nature. A couple
of the points along the coast that jut out into the ocean are covered with
huge wind mills that help produce power for the islanders. Generally the
breeze can be light and variable near the Canaries this time of year
although for the start of our journey we have a steady 20 knots out of the
North East. Timoneer is off on the right foot and with a little luck we
will have breeze until we get far enough South to pick up the trade winds.
John
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Monday, 24 November 2003
Noon Position : 36’51” N 001’47 W
Course 228 degrees Speed 12 knots Days Run : 264miles
Weather : Overcast Wind : 10kts Direction: 350′ True
News
Timoneer departed Palma at 09:30 Sunday for Gibraltar, the first 490 mile
leg of our trip across the Atlantic. The wind was out of the South South
West 20+kts putting our usual course South of Ibiza straight on the nose.
We opted to go North of Ibiza giving us a slightly better angle and flat
water in the wind shadow of the island once we arrived. It turned out to
be great sailing as the breeze peaked out at 32kts with the boat making
13-13.8kts over the ground for the first 70 miles. The only downside was
it kicked up quite a swell and had a few of the crew feeling a little worse
for the wear, although I am happy to report everyone has regained their sea
legs. As Timoneer rounded the island and came to a more southerly course
the wind began to die and we motored straight up wind throughout the evening
and into the morning. With a little luck we should arrive in Gibraltar at
9:00 Tuesday morning to bunker fuel for the rest of the trip, will keep you
posted.
John
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Monday 27th October 2003
Last year Timoneer won the DoyleVela SuperYacht Regatta here in Palma so we returned to defend the Trophy over three races on 9th through 11th October. Unfortunately the wind was fairly light and got progressively worse so we did not do as well as we had hoped, ending up 6th overall out of 11 boats. However the race is more about having fun and on that score we did extremely well. The whole regatta was very well run with a strong emphasis on the social side of sailing and was remarkably successful. Hope we can make it back next year! Sunday morning saw a few hangovers after the black tie ball and prize giving the night before, but we nevertheless set off on a short cruise around the spectacular coast of Mallorca. We are now back in Palma and will set off for the Caribbean in late November when we will again resume the daily passage reports.
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Wednesday, 24 September 2003
Noon Position : 49′ 05N 005′ 40W
Course : 230 degrees Speed 11.5 knots
Days Run : 198miles (18.5 hours)
Weather : Clear and cool Wind :130 degrees 10 knots
News
Timoneer is back at sea after a short yard period in Holland and some rig
work and sail repairs in Portsmouth, England. We had a hectic day
yesterday starting with 0700 sail trials to look at the changes in the mast
bend and the flattened main. After that it was off to fill up with fuel at
10:30, which took 2 hours to load the 5000 gallons of diesel fuel needed to
top off the tanks. Finally at 17:30 we departed Gun Wharf quay in
Portsmouth for our journey to Palma de Mallorca Spain. We moved our
departure up from Wednesday morning to take advantage of the Northerly winds
over the area. This allowed us to get as far south as possible before a
low pressure system mid Atlantic brings strong winds from the South. It
has all gone according to plan as we motored peacefully through out the
evening Tuesday in the dying Northerlies. This morning the wind has gone
to the East an we have been reaching along nicely. Timoneer is currently
about 40 miles off the North West coast of France and about to make our turn
to course 204’T to cross the Bay of Biscay.
John
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14:00 Anchored off Den Helder, Netherlands
053′ 00.8 N 004′ 48.9 E
Trip Log: 291 miles in 27 hours
Weather : Wind : 220 degrees 11 knots
Timoneer departed Gun Wharf quay marina Portsmouth England at 10:55 for our
trip through the English Channel to the Netherlands. We exited through
the Eastern Solent following two British Navy vessels towards the straits.
The weather forecast was not good although once we were at sea it was a
pleasant 15-18 knot south westerly. Timoneer crossed the South West bound
shipping traffic west of the traffic separation scheme and entered the North
East bound lane off the French coast. All the traffic through the English
Channel is monitored by radar and we called in to Griz-Nez traffic control
at 19:00. Timoneer is required to stay in the NE traffic lane if
proceeding by engine, had we been sailing we would have been able to use the
inshore traffic lane. Initially the traffic was not as heavy as I had
expected although there was the occasional high speed ferry or hovercraft
crossing at right angles to traffic at 40 knots to make sure you were paying
attention. By the time we reached the straits of Dover the radar was a
mass of 40-50 targets in a 12 mile circle. The radar screen was a jumble
of automatic range plotting vectors in every direction and speed. The
ferries seem to line up on the sides of the traffic lanes waiting for an
opening then dart across at 25 knots plus, so it ends up being somewhat
organized chaos. Through the actual straits we only had to alter course
once to take a tugs transom as it was a little to close for comfort. The
remainder of the trip was comparatively quite as we motored in the dying
breeze dodging the occasional North Sea oil/gas platform. We arrive in Den
Helder at 13:00 and were anchored just North East of the town by 14:00.
Everyone onboard is well and after a wash down were ready for a good nights
sleep.
Best regards,
John
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Tuesday, 01 July 2003
Noon Position : 38 59N 26 13W
Course 057degrees Speed 11.5 knots Days Run :45miles in 3.8 hrs
from departure
Weather : Mainly overcast but some sun. Wind : 240degrees 18 knots
News: We left the island of Terceira at 0800 this morning, motored around
the south end of the island and set course direct for the Isle of Wight
1,300 miles away. There is a big swell running which probably came from a
big low that has just moved through to the North of us, so we are rolling
around quite a bit.
The weather forecast looks to be quite good as the Azores high ridges up
into England at about the same pace that we are moving. Look out England we
are bringing the good weather with us!
We should arrive in Portsmouth on Sunday the 6th and will be docked at
Gunwharf Quay.
There were a lot of birds around so we have only just put out the fishing
lines but don’t expect to catch much between here and the UK. We did see a
lot of dolphins and passed close to a pod of them who had encircled a school
of fish in a tight ball and were happily feeding of them. A large whale
surfaced just in front of the bow and Paul, who was on watch, had to swerve
to avoid him.
All is well on board and we have enjoyed our stay in the Azores very much –
a wonderful place!
PW
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Sunday, 15 June 2003
Noon Position :38 35N 68 46W Course 110degrees Speed 11 knots
Days Run : 272 miles since leaving
Weather : foggy and damp becoming clear this morning. Wind : 210degrees 15 knots
News : We are off at last!! There was a slight delay as we were scheduled to
leave on Thursday but our last minute plans changed and we could not leave
on Friday the 13th so left Saturday morning instead. Just as well as a low
pressure moved through and there were gales out there on Friday but all we
had was a moderate breeze and lots of fog. Managed to sail for a few hours
yesterday afternoon but motorsailing other than that.
The big news is that we have caught the first fish already – a nice dorado
(mahi mahi) so looking forward to eating some fresh fish. Dorado is also the
favourite on board.
We are all settling in nicely to the offshore routine of watches and
everyone has worked out the arrival time in the Azores for their entry in
the Great North Atlantic Sweepstakes. $5 per head entry fee, winner takes
all!
PW
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