22 May to 4 June 2004 - John Ridgway Save the Albatross Voyage

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Leg 7 - Horta, Azores to Honfleur, France

Date: Saturday 22 May 2004

Day: 302,

Local time: 1200 GMT-2

Leg Number and name: Azores to London

Position - Latitude, Longitude: 38/32'N, 28/36'W

Position relative to land: In Horta, Azores

Distance travelled in last 24hrs: 0

Distance sailed this Leg:

Total distance from Ardmore: 26,572 miles (49,041 kilometres)

Course: -

Speed: -

Next Port: Tower Bridge, London

Approx distance to next port: tbc nm (tbc kilometres) Wind: Variable

Sea: calm (in the harbour)

Barometer:

Air Temp: 21C, with windchill, 20C

Sea temp: n/a

Cloud cover: 10%

Bird sightings over the day: Cory's Shearwaters



Notes: Up at 06.30 after a good night's sleep, the last for while! Walked through Horta to the S E waterfront cafe for a last glass of coffee, toasted bun and cheese. A pleasant sunny morning of final preparation and port clearance. At 1300 we slipped gently out of the harbour into the slop of the channel between the islands of Faial and Pico. The patchwork of small green fields and scattered red-roofed white cottages of East Faial soon fell astern.



The breeze was light and variable but settled in the East as we cleared the islands. We are heading North for 400 miles to the 45th parallel before bearing away ENE for the English Channel. It sounds easy. As a marker, Horta to Plymouth is some 1300 miles. We'll take it very carefully.



We passed Graciosa in the dark and looked for an ESE wind. There are plenty of Cory's Shearwaters and a good few dolphins. Everyone pleased to be at sea. I'm afraid the poem for today is rather longer, it's by Stephen Spender:



I think continually of those who were truly great.

Who, from the womb, remembered the soul's history

Through corridors of light where the hours are suns,

Endless and singing. Whose lovely ambition

Was that their lips, still touched with fire,

Should tell of the Spirit, clothed from head to foot in song.

And who hoarded from the Spring branches

The desires falling across their bodies like blossoms.



What is precious is never to forget

The essential delight of the blood drawn from ageless springs

Breaking through rocks in worlds before our earth.

Never to deny its pleasure in the morning simple light

Nor its grave evening demand for love.

Never to allow gradually the traffic to smother

With noise and fog, the flowering of the Spirit.



Near the snow, near the sun, in the highest fields,

See how these names are feted by the waving grass

And by the streamers of white cloud

And whispers of wind in the listening sky.

The names of those who in their lives fought for life,

Who wore at their hearts the fire's centre.

Born of the sun, they travelled a short while toward the sun

And left the vivid air signed with their honour.



It takes a little while to spout all that. I use it to cheer myself along, when it looks as if what I'm doing is pretty dotty.



Into the mist



John Ridgway

Date: Sunday 23 May 2004

Day: 303

Local time: 1200 GMT-2

Leg Number and name: Leg 7

Position - Latitude, Longitude: 40/08'N, 28/11'W

Position relative to land: 100 nautical miles (185.2km) NNE of Faial, Azores

Distance travelled in last 24hrs: 100 miles (185.2km)

Distance sailed this Leg: 100 miles ((185.2km)

Total distance from Ardmore: 26,672 miles (49,396 kilometres)

Course: 002T

Speed: 3.6 kts

Next Port: Tower Bridge, London

Approx distance to next port: 1,349 nm (2,498 kilometres) If we sailed in a straight line - which of course we can't.

Wind: E F1-3 (0-11kts)

Sea: Light, small chop and low swell on the beam

Barometer: 1018 rising

Air Temp: 19C, with wind chill 19C

Sea temp: 18.1C

Cloud cover: 100%

Bird sightings over the day: Cory's Shearwaters



Notes: At midnight we were ambling along in the right direction on a dark night. There were some odd luminous bursts beneath the surface and one south-bound vessel far away on the starboard quarter.



Black rain squalls gathered around dawn and their influence was with us all morning: the breezes attached to them and the showers and one fierce downpour.



Wheeling Cory's shearwaters remind us of our long-gone albatrosses and the clean waters of the Southern Ocean. But we are in the dumping ground of the Northern Hemisphere now; the water is scummy from oil tankers washing their tanks and crowded with all the flotsam and jetsam of modern life.



Nick loves working the boat up to speed, tuning the sails and coming up with statistics of our progress but we think he's wishing the voyage could go on and on, or be continued on tap. We couldn't have wished for a better shipmate than Nick.



And it's odd to think that Marie Christine and I have similar feelings about the voyage. This year with the Albatross has come at turning point in our own lives; I doubt we'll be quite the same after this quiet circumnavigation. While we are both very keen to reach home and be with our family on Ardmore, I notice we are not rushing to listen to the World Service or read-up on man's increasing inhumanity to his fellow man. I would guess we will both be more reflective on the natural way of life at Ardmore, I wouldn't be surprised if simplicity became our goal.



A little after three o'clock in the afternoon, Nick spotted a whale some 300 yards ahead on our port bow. Richard, Igor, MC and I were all fairly drowsy, reading and dozing, preparing for our night watches. We clambered grudgingly through the main hatch and assembled half-heartedly in the centre cockpit. I was worried Richard was not comfortable in his bunk on the starboard side of the saloon and he has a bit of a cold. I steadied myself against the mainsheet and waited to return below. It was time I was in my bunk, I'd already been delayed for long enough.



My half-gaze settled on a patch of sea maybe 30 yards out on our port side. Then I saw the biggest whale of my life! It surfaced exactly where I was looking. I couldn't believe my eyes. Perhaps it had been facing south while we came by, heading north? The black back seemed to stretch for ever, before a small dorsal fin emerged and the whole behemoth slid below the surface.



I spent the afternoon wondering if it could have been two whales, almost side by side, but with one slightly ahead of the other. How else could it have been so long? But the others, who hadn't been looking in exactly the same location, assured me that what they had seen after I cried out, was simply one very large whale. Maybe a Fin or a Blue Whale.



There is another poem but I'll keep it for a less crowded day.



Into the mist



John.

Date: Monday 24 May 2004

Day: 304, Day 3 this Leg

Local time: 1200 GMT-2

Leg Number and name: Leg 7

Position - Latitude, Longitude: 41/09'N, 27/54'W

Position relative to land: 570nm (1,056km) due west of Oporto, Spain

Distance travelled in last 24hrs: 60 miles (111km)

Distance sailed this Leg: 160 miles (296km)

Total distance from Ardmore: 26,832 miles (49,693 kilometres)

Course: 003T

Speed: 3.1 kts

Next Port: Tower Bridge, London

Approx distance to next port: 1,298 nm (2,404 kilometres) If we sailed in a straight line - which of course we can't.

Wind: SE F2 (4-6kts)

Sea: Light following sea

Barometer: 1019 steady

Air Temp: 20C, with wind chill 19C

Sea temp: 17.8C

Cloud cover: 25%


Bird sightings over the day: Cory's Shearwaters, Dolphins and very large whale



Notes: A large whale circled round us in the dark. It blew more than a dozen times, often so close its lungs sounded like vast bellows with a tuning fork somewhere deep within. MC and I saw its back heave up glistening black in the light of a thin crescent moon. We were hoping it wouldn't get cross and remembered how our old chum Jerome Poncet in the Falklands had sunk in just five minutes after an attck by an angry whale not so far from here. The trick is not to get between a bull and his harem, or a mother and her young.



It was pretty nippy at dawn and we set about adding 20 minutes to each of the 3 daytime Watches, so we could put the clock back an hour at 1800 and thus bring dawn forward an hour tomorrow. We felt chilly and willed the sun to come up, up it came at last, a deep orange ball, rising fast. Its pencil rays soon warmed our backs. In spite of all our hi-tech sophistication we are still entirely dependent on that red ball and its warmth, for life.



The sea is all a-sparkle with the silver sails of countless tiny Portuguese Man o'war jellyfish and the water itself is a soup of transparent 'sycamore wings' each with a yellow dot of life in a sac at one end. We drifted past an 18" long turtle complete with spiny brown shell, it paddled to keep up with us as we slid by on the southerly air but soon fell behind.



The wind increased from the south and we rolled away the mainsail and ran north under the No.1 Yankee, furling that as the night fell and the familiar howl returned to the rigging. Another gale? Springtime in the North Atlantic, 1,600nm E of Nova Scotia, 1,400 nm west of Belgium.




Into the mist...John.

Date: Tuesday 25 May 2004

Day: 306, Day 4 this Leg

Local time: 1200 GMT-1

Leg Number and name: Leg 7

Position - Latitude, Longitude: 42/54'N, 28/01'W

Position relative to land: 1,263nm (2,339 km)

Distance travelled in last 24hrs: 100 miles (185km)

Distance sailed this Leg: 260 miles (481km)

Total distance from Ardmore: 26,932 miles (49,878 kilometres)

Course: 066T

Speed: 5.1 kts

Next Port: Tower Bridge, London

Approx distance to next port: 1,245 nm (2,306 kilometres) Approx

Wind: W F5-6 (17-27kts)

Sea: Moderate to rough on port quarter

Barometer: 1011 rising

Air Temp: 16C, with wind chill 11C

Sea temp: 17.6C

Cloud cover: 100%

Bird sightings over the day: Cory's Shearwaters, Storm Petrel sp. Dolphins



Notes: Midnight and I added 30 more turns to the 120 already on the No1 Yankee winch. I began to fret: we'd got the wrong rig. It was so long since we'd had a strong wind aft the beam; some tme in early February I think. I'm sure we'd all foreseen it coming, stuff left lying about, stuff not fastened. The new lines on the self-steering too slack on the wheel drum as they began to be run in.



Igor and Richard came up for the graveyard watch at 0200 and I was grateful we'd put the clock forward and daylight was not too far away.



By 0600 the wind was gusting 50-60 knots and Nick had rolled away the Yankee altogether. We were moving along at 5knots under just a scrap of Staysail alone. Visibility was so poor we had the energy consuming radar on.



The sea was now a different place from yesterday. Big breaking grey seas, streaked with foam. Where was our turtle? How fared the tiny silver-sailed jellyfish? The 'Sycamore wings' would be churning. Even the whale would still need to breathe, how long would it take to fill those mighty lungs?



But it certainly did not dismay the dolphins, they were leaping at the bow. And a glimpse of a distant wheeling Shearwater in the murk might just have been a far-off Albatross. Wishful thinking.



During our four hours the wind veered 45 degrees from SSW to WSW as the Low pulled away to the East.



Why did the yellow flare box keep sliding across the doghouse floor? Months ago, when we used to roll downwind had it been jammed between the footrest and the seat? Marie Christine came up with a solution - the thick hard disc of a pumpkin jammed in the gap stopped all movement.



All day the wind slowly died away and we waited for another weather system to come through.



Into the mist...John.

Date: Wednesday 26 May 2004

Day: 307, Day 5 this Leg

Local time: 1200 GMT-1

Leg Number: Leg 7, Azores to Tower Bridge, London

Position - Latitude, Longitude: 43/20'N, 26/20'W

Position relative to land: 780nm (1,444km) west of Cape Finisterre

Distance travelled in last 24hrs: 78 n miles (144km)

Distance sailed this Leg: 338 miles (626km)

Total distance from Ardmore: 27,010 miles (50,022 kilometres)

Course: 064T

Speed: 4.9 kts

Next Port: Tower Bridge, London

Approx distance to next port: 1152 nm (2,133 kilometres)

Wind: S F4 (11-16kts)

Sea: Light but with a big long swell coming onto port quarter

Barometer: 1018 steady

Air Temp: 17C, with wind chill 13C

Sea temp: 16.6C

Cloud cover: 100%

Bird sightings over the day: Cory's Shearwaters,



Notes: With the passing of yesterday's low pressure system, the glass had recovered seven of the eight points it had lost by the time we came on watch at midnight. And in the trying period of calm which followed, a big swell caused the sails to slat back and forth on the wires supporting the mainmast. Fearing damage we rolled them away and simply wallowed, going nowhere. A great way to dispirit the crew.



Peter Sanders of Poole has done a great job with our sails. He specialises in long distance cruising sails and I certainly don't want to wreck them at this late stage; it is still a long way to Ardmore and as you can imagine they are fairly fragile by now.



We have used the No.2 Yankee and the Staysail so much over the 50,000 kilometres round the world, and they were at their most valuable downwind across the Southern Ocean. On the other hand we have used the Mainsail comparatively less so because we only have the one and it is so important to windward, so downwind we save it whenever we can. The big No.1 Yankee, the Mizzen Staysail and the Mizen sail have all been useful at times. In the Northeast Tradewinds, from Portugal down to the Equator last summer we had great success with the No.1 and No.2 Yankees poled out on either side of the mainmast.



The No.2 Yankee and the Staysail, both flying from their own furling forestays forward of the mast, were easily sheeted and furled with jammers and winches in the aft cockpit beside the helmsman. What a joy they have been on dark and stormy nights. The electric-powered Hood in-mast furling system for the Mainsail has done all we have asked of it. It is a real delight to operate, again from the aft cockpit with a simple switch and a self tailing winch for the out-haul on the starboard side. John Boyce can be proud of it; how sporting of him to fly out to Capetown and fix the stranded cap-shrouds last October. How vital for us.



Nick and I have each had such pleasure operating the rig alone, from the aft cockpit. And the deck floodlights have unfailingly turned night into day whenever needed. It is not always easy to find reliability.



The calm seas ended abruptly at 1100, a good breeze came piping-up from the South and steadily built through the day from the SE. By evening were into another gale.



Now we just need to nurse the old shippy through these final stages.




Into the mist...John.

Date: Thursday 27 May 2004

Day: 308, Day 6 this Leg

Local time: 1200 GMT-1

Leg Number: Leg 7, Azores to Tower Bridge, London

Position - Latitude, Longitude: 44/14'N, 23/14'W

Position relative to land: 1,230nm WNW of Lisbon

Distance travelled in last 24hrs: 140 nautical miles (259km)

Distance sailed this Leg: 470 miles (870km)

Total distance from Ardmore: 27,150 miles (50,282 kilometres)

Course: 071T

Speed: 5.8 kts

Next Port: Tower Bridge, London

Approx distance to next port: 1,009 nm (1,869 kilometres)

Wind: WSW F6-7 (22-33kts) (41-61kmph)

Sea: Rough

Barometer: 1009 rising

Air Temp: 17C, with wind chill 11C

Sea temp: 16.6C

Cloud cover: 100%

Bird sightings over the day: Cory's Shearwaters, Storm Petrel.



Notes: Force 8 at midnight - and rising. This time we had the right rig. This is what we are set up for. Nevertheless the old anxiety nags at the back of the mind: What if we hit a steel container washed off a N.Atlantic Container ship in the winter, are there really 40,000 of them floating around?Now we are meeting ships heading for the Channel. In a gale in the dark we might contact them to warn them we are a sailing vessel and they must avoid us. Very few ships speak English.



On the graveyard watch, at 0230, Igor and Richard managed to contact a ship on the VHF radio, luckily they persuaded it to go round our stern.



Our morning Watch saw the peak of the gale, with sustained 40-50 knot winds veering to the south-west. Steep breaking seas. Igor and Richard had had one flood the aft cockpit, luckily we avoided that.



In steep breaking seas, with the wind tearing at my clothing, it was no time to miss a hand-hold or lose a footing as I moved around the deck, setting-up for the gybe on to the port tack. I am painfully aware I'm not moving with the old 'cat-like grace'and the broken ribs still twinge if I have to lie on my right side.



Richard of course is not as used to this life as we are. Acclimatisation takes a little longer after too many hours in the 'Chairman's Car' on the bye-ways of Bucks. There is no heater for a kick-off and the hours are hardly sociable. He is alittle older than me and usually bangs his head to begin with. He was only a Royal Marine but he's pretty gritty and if he can hang on for a few days more he'll get into the swing of things. This weather is a fine jump start. I hope he is making his bunk comfortable in the Saloon, I do worry about him so. Always a free thinker, if occasionally a little impulsive, he has decided to sleep with his head at the opposite end from the way I once did it for 203 days. "There is always a better way"... I suppose. But he does look a little like a broken rag doll at times (I don't think he knows a lot about Feng Shui).




Into the mist...John.

Date: Friday 28 May 2004

Day: 309, Day 7 this Leg

Local time: 1200 GMT-1

Leg Number: Leg 7, Azores to Tower Bridge, London

Position - Latitude, Longitude: 45/38'N, 21/03'W

Position relative to land: Off the Bay of Biscay, but way out in the Atlantic

Distance traveled in last 24hrs: 130 nautical miles (241km)

Distance sailed this Leg: 608 miles (1,126km)

Total distance from Ardmore: 27,286 miles (50,534 kilometres)

Course: 043T

Speed: 5.0kts

Next Port: Tower Bridge, London

Approx distance to next port: 879 nm (1,628 kilometres)

Wind: SW F5-6 (17-26kts) (31-48kmph)

Sea: Moderate

Barometer: 1013 steady

Air Temp: 18C, with wind chill 15C

Sea temp: 15.5C

Cloud cover: 90%

Bird sightings over the day: Cory's Shearwaters, Storm Petrel.



Notes: It's all spread out in 17 columns in the Log before me: Date, UTC, True course made good, Distance made good, Wind, Barometer, Engine revs, Engine oil pressure, Engine water temperature, Diesel Header tank, Forward, Main and Aft bilge pumps, Stern gland, Distance to go, True bearing to waypoint, Position, Remarks.



It is all recorded: on the hour, every hour, for 304 days.



Today it is a simple story. We continue to have a robust westerly airstream pushing us along our track to "The Chops of the Channel" as Jack Aubrey oft remarked to his "Particular friend" Stephen Maturin, in most of the 23 Patrick O'Brian volumes about the Royal Navy in Napoleonic times. I have read the lot on this voyage and I don't regret a minute of the time it took. There was always "Not a moment to lose" and when he wished to congratulate someone, it was "I give you joy, Sir!" Great stuff.



As he sailed up the Channel, returning from the far side of the world, Jack Aubrey was usually apprehensive about what he was returning to.



Banjo Patterson describing Australian cities a hundred years later, captures my own feelings:



"I am sitting in my dingy little office, where a stingy
Ray of sunlight struggles feebly down between the houses tall,
And the foetid air and gritty of the dusty dirty city
Through the open window floating, spreads its foulness over all.



And in place of lowing cattle, I can hear the fiendish rattle
Of the tramways and the buses making hurry down the street
And the language uninviting of the gutter children fighting
comes fitfully and faintly through the ceaseless tramp of feet.



And the hurrying people daunt me and their pallid faces haunt me
As they shoulder one another in their rush and nervous haste,
With their eager eyes and greedy, and their stunted forms and weedy
For townsfolk have no time to grow, they have no time to waste."



Sorry about the 'lowing cattle' but I'm sure you'll get the gist of my trepidation.




Into the mist...John.

Date: Saturday 29 May 2004

Day: 310, Day 8 this Leg

Local time: 1200 GMT-1

Leg Number: Leg 7, Azores to Tower Bridge, London

Position - Latitude, Longitude: 46/46'N, 18/18'W

Position relative to land: 400 miles (741km) off the coast of Brittany

Distance travelled in last 24hrs: 130 nautical miles (241km)

Distance sailed this Leg: 738 miles (1,367km)

Total distance from Ardmore: 27,416 miles (550,774 kilometres)

Course: 067T

Speed: 5.0kts

Next Port: Tower Bridge, London

Approx distance to next port: 749 nm (1,387 kilometres)

Wind: SW F5-6 (17-26kts) (31-48kmph)

Sea: Moderate to light

Barometer: 1013 steady

Air Temp: 18C, with wind chill 15C

Sea temp: 15.3C

Cloud cover: 95%

Bird sightings over the day: Cory's Shearwaters, Storm Petrel.



Notes: One thirty in the morning. A bit chilly. You need your hood up out at the wheel, even with the trusty following wind. The half-moon has dipped below the western horizon, it's pitch black. I'm at the chart table writing this. The boat is rolling heavily and there is a hiss and rumble from each following wave as it catches us up and runs along the side of the boat.



I'm writing this at the chart table. Caught in the perspex of the Doghouse aft dropboards, three feet from my right knee, I can see the reflection of Marie Christine's tiny Petzel headtorch. The light is bobbing as she pounds the dough for tomorrow's bread with her mighty right hand (which has often narrowly missed sending me 'crashin' to the promised land - "Big bad John").



"Combat cooking" Igor calls it, himself 'Walking wounded' from self inflicted injuries of yesterday. First he was caught out by rogue swell which swivelled the boat through 90 degrees as it engulfed the stern, sending his exotic jugful of fruit salad swilling across the yellow work surface. At supper it seemed to have lost little of its piquante Peruvian mint and lemon flavouring.



His second accident was more serious. Marie Christine boils two kettles twice a day to fill everyone's individual flask, for ablutions in the morning and for night-watch hot drinks in the evenings. She boils another kettle at lunch which is largely used by Igor for the lengthy concoction of strong pungent coffee. This afternoon the kettle belched on a roll and scalded the back of Igor's left hand which came up in a series of ugly blisters not unlike frostbite. Some hours passed before he let anyone see them (18 hours!) not a pretty sight. Poor Igor. He's got it wrapped up in a crepe bandage.



This is really why, after all the long voyages, Marie Christine prefers to keep the Galley entirely to herself. It's a dangerous place. She has cooked over a thousand [actually 2834 individual servings at sea] individual meals on the trip - and has had her fair share of burns. It is a hazardous business.



'More soldiers are killed returning from patrol than are ever killed going out'. On this trip I have tried to avoid my old enemy 'Collective irresponsibility'(would Railtrack qualify?) by having individuals responsible for tasks. Nick: Panda generator, JR: Mercedes engine, Marie Christine: Galley, etc.



Besides all the above we continue to roll along on our way east. Toward the Rising Sun (The house of which has been the ruin of many a poor boy).




Into the mist...John. (Boring sanctimonious old twit who won't last much longer).

Date: Sunday 30 May 2004

Day: 311, Day 9 this Leg

Local time: 1200 GMT-1

Leg Number: Leg 7, Azores to Tower Bridge, London

Position - Latitude, Longitude: 47/25'N, 16/02'W

Position relative to land: 326 nm to mouth of English Channel

Distance travelled in last 24hrs: 100 nautical miles (km)

Distance sailed this Leg: 848 miles ( km)

Total distance from Ardmore: 27,516 miles ( kilometres)

Course: 074T

Speed: 4.8 kts

Next Port: Tower Bridge, London

Approx distance to next port: 649 nm ( kilometres)

Wind: SE F5-6 (17-26kts) (31-48kmph)

Sea: Moderate, very grey, whitecaps, poor visbility

Barometer: 1012 falling

Air Temp: 13C, with wind chill 6C

Sea temp: 14.7C

Cloud cover: 100% with drizzle

Bird sightings over the day: Cory's Shearwaters,



Notes: At 2130, we had just come off watch, reading in our bunks until the curtain of sleep came down. "Ssssh!" Marie Christine tapped my arm, "I can hear the dolphins, through the hull, their talking to one another!" Deaf as a post, I knew I would never hear the high-pitched squeaking. But when we returned to the doghouse at midnight, there it was in the log: "2130 pilot whales come alongside to listen to Rachmaninoff...".



This was a grim and grisly grey day. A warm front has passed through, bringing warm wet weather with very poor visibility. Thank goodness for the radar. So far we have been able to pick up vessels a dozen miles off and our VHF Radio Logbook shows 100% contact with ships, all of whom have altered course if need be. This is all good practice for when we reach the English Channel, now only some 300 mile ahead. Once there we will need to place ourselves out of the way of shipping. When we have to cross Traffic Separation Schemes we will try to do so at right angles and as rapidly as possible; this is why we have three watches of well rested people.



After several days of this westerly airstream the ocean is looking a little like our long months in the Southern Ocean but on a smaller scale. But it seems lonelier here because there are no Albatrosses to keep us company and we miss them so.



How miserable it will be, if the 3/4 of the surface of the world which is covered by seawater, all becomes as empty as this.



The main blister on the back of Igor's left hand becomes larger and larger. At least it is showing no sign of infection while dirt cannot get to it. Marie christine has triumphantly produced advice from out 1st Aid book supporting her theory that the blister should not be burst.



Into the mist...John.

Date: Monday 31 May 2004

Day: 312, Day 10 this Leg

Local time: 1200 GMT

Leg Number: Leg 7, Azores to Tower Bridge, London

Position - Latitude, Longitude: 47/47'N, 12/41'W

Position relative to land: 232 nm to mouth of English Channel

Distance travelled in last 24hrs: 140 nautical miles ( km)

Distance sailed this Leg: 988 miles ( km)

Total distance from Ardmore: 27,656 miles ( kilometres)

Course: 080T

Speed: 5.4 kts

Next Port: tbc

Approx distance to next port: tbc

Wind: SW F4 (11-16kts) (31-48kmph)

Sea: Light

Barometer: 1013 steady

Air Temp: 16C, with wind chill 12C

Sea temp: 14.9C

Cloud cover: 100%

Bird sightings over the day: Fulmar.



Notes: "A grey mist on the sea's face and a grey dawn breaking"

Now on the continental shelf. Muddy-looking water. Violet no more. Visibility down to 200 yards, tendrils of mist wreathed and writhed on the face of the dark swell, muffling the sound of our passing.

Now in the chops of the Channel, at any moment, Jack Aubrey might come ghosting out of the mist in the 'Surprise', homeward bound and heavy with treasure, won from rich 'Prizes' on the far side of the world.
"Ship of the world!" cried Jack, clapping eyes on the good ship English Rose VI. Hastily, I ran up the red duster.

So quiet in the fog, even my feeble my voice carried across, asking if he'd care for a dish of Marie Christines's curry.

"I'd like that of all things!" came an answering bellow. The long-boat slid across the gap between us. I recognised Stephen Maturin, the ship's Surgeon and Jack's particular friend, he might take a look at Igor's hand. But the good doctor tripped on his cloak and fell in the sea as he came aboard. Of course I lent him a change of clothing, the quick flicker of his lizard eyes made me uneasy. I thought I'd better not start "topping it the high and mighty". But then I wouldn't would I? Anyway, he came round a bit once we got to discussing the noble Albatross, he was very knowledgeable.

"For all love, that was good!" Jack wiped his full lips with a precious piece of our kitchen roll, impatiently tossing his long yellow hair over his epaulettes. With lunch finished, I could see their eyes darting about for a bottle or two of port, so by way of distraction I asked Jack if he had ever met Lord Nelson.

"I was with him at the Battle of the Nile" he boomed.

"Did he ever speak to you, Sir?"

"Why yes, I once sat opposite him at table!"

"What did he say?" I was stunned. Maturin was not fooled. Perhaps he thought me a deep file.

Jack's chest swelled "Lord Nelson leaned across the table, he looked me straight in the eye....."

"Yes! What? What?"

"He said... Pass the salt!" Ha! Ha! Ha! Jack laughed until the tears ran down his cheeks. We all laughed too. Maturin smiled thinly, aristocratic nostrils flaring at the sharp aroma of Igor's freshly ground coffee. To my dismay, Morris-Adams produced a bottle secreted in his bag. They frowned at our plastic cups but the bottle was soon empty.

"Sorry, must catch the morning tide at Portsmouth on Thursday, there's not a minute to lose" Jack hauled himself to his feet, all scars and poorly mended limbs.

"I give you joy, Sir" he roared over his shoulder from the long boat. Maturin nodding courteously.

"What did you think of that Nick?" I asked.

"You should have asked for your kit back, John."

"Not bloody likely!" I waved limply, as they disappeared into the mist......John.

Date: Tuesday 1 June 2004

Day: 313, Day 11 this Leg

Local time: 1200 GMT

Leg Number: Leg 7, Azores to Tower Bridge, London

Position - Latitude, Longitude: 48/22'N, 9/24'W

Position relative to land: Approaching western end of English Channel

Distance travelled in last 24hrs: 140 nautical miles (259 km)

Distance sailed this Leg: 1,128 miles (2,089 km)

Total distance from Ardmore: 27,796 miles (51,478 kilometres)

Course: 059T

Speed: 6.1 kts

Next Port: tbc

Approx distance to next port: tbc

Wind: N F5 (17-21kts)

Sea: Light

Barometer: 1020 rising

Air Temp: 15C, with wind chill 11C

Sea temp: 14.9C

Cloud cover: 10%

Bird sightings over the day: Manx Shearwater, Gannets, Kittiwake



Notes: 1st of June. After 313 days we are back in the Western Approaches to the English Channel. The weather is glorious, the sea aquamarine.



Seventeen days from now, at precisely 1100 a.m. on Thursday 17 June, Tower Bridge, on the River Thames in the Pool of London, is to lift for English Rose VI and her SAVE THE ALBATROSS banners in red on white lettering. Goodness! we'd better be there!



38 years have passed since Chay Blyth and I rowed under the Bridge on 28 November 1966.



After a delay of half an hour to conform with the London Traffic Regulations, the Bridge is scheduled to lift again at 11.30 for us to sail out. Then we are booked to tie-up alongside St Katherine's Pier for a while before entering St Katherine's Dock in early afternoon. If you have been reading the Log and supporting the 'Save the Albatross Campaign', hopefully we'll see you there. Or maybe later, because the old shippy has a berth in St Katherine's Dock until early morning 26 June when we must begin our sail up the east coast on our way home to Ardmore. You can call us on our satellite phone +8816 315 23952 and we'll call you back to save cost.



Right now we're heading for a discreet channel port to lie-up and effect repairs, re-fuel and provision for that trip London-Ardmore.



The closing date for signatures for the Save the Albatross Petition is 14 June. Marie Christine and I fly to Rome with the Petition on 23 June. Please do get as many signatures from your friends onto the website before then.



We need one final convulsive heave - or that's what it feels like out here on Day 313.



Our aim is 'To prevent the needless slaughter of the Albatross.' After all the places we've been and all the different people we've met, I am absolutely certain that the Albatross can be saved. It's fate depends on mankind.



If I die very soon and become an Albatross, I'll be lucky to live 80 months, never mind the 80 years I was led to expect by my trusty Alexander Seabirds book, published in 1926.



into the mist......John.

Date: Wednesday 2 June 2004

Day: 314, Day 12 this Leg

Local time: 1200 GMT

Leg Number: Leg 7, Azores to Tower Bridge, London

Position - Latitude, Longitude: 49/15'N, 6/06'W

Position relative to land: 40 nm south of Lands End, Cornwall

Distance travelled in last 24hrs: 117 nautical miles (217 km)

Distance sailed this Leg: 1,245 miles (2,306 km)

Total distance from Ardmore: 27,913 miles (51,695 kilometres)

Course: 076T

Speed: 7.0 kts (motor sailing)

Next Port: tbc

Approx distance to next port: tbc

Wind: NNW F2 (6-11kts)

Sea: Near calm

Barometer: 1027 steady

Air Temp: 15C, with wind chill 11C

Sea temp: 15.1C

Cloud cover: 0%

Bird sightings over the day: Gannets,Fulmars, Kittiwakes, Manx Shearwaters



Notes: Glorious weather for dodging ships in the English Channel. Two frigates, one submarine, and a Royal Fleet Auxillary tanker did most of the manoeuvring about us - four sinister warships in battleship grey. They look a bit clumsy as they wheel around but just imagine sitting on the sea shore and seeing them come over the horizon and having no warships yourself to frighten them away.



Then there are the fishing boats, ignoring everything and everybody. And beyond that, all the merchant shipping for Northern Europe in two lanes, East and West bound. Two non-stop fast lanes of ships.



We seem to have left the whales and dolphins behind us when we came onto the continental shelf. In their place we see several familiar friends: Manx Shearwaters (in place of Cory's), Fulmars, Kittiwakes and Gannets. It's nearly a year since we saw them last and although we have not sighted land, these birds really show we are nearly home.



My yacht insurance ended last July, when we sailed 'further than 200 miles from the shore of mainland Europe between Bergen and La Rochelle'.



I have sailed all the major voyages without insurance, beginning with the row across the North Atlantic in 1966. I could never afford it.



Over the years this has become an increasing burden.



I have been reading 'Proving Ground' by G. Bruce Knecht, an intriguing account of the disastrous Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race of 1998. In it, a 65 crew-member, himself a successful lawyer, decides to sue the organising yacht club, the weather bureau, the life raft manufacturer and his good friend the skipper and owner of the yacht which sank and on which he was crewing. "I'm in a unique position in that I was there and I have the legal skills and the experience to make sure the litigation doesn't go off the rails...." he says. He claims the skipper is still his friend, the legal action is nothing more than an effort to obtain money from the skipper's insurance company. The unfortunate skipper and owner doesn't see it this way. It will gnaw away at him. I have a feeling it will shorten his life.



Today I renewed my insurance policy. But my future is doubtful.



Into the mist......John.

Date: Thursday 3 June 2004

Day: 315, Day 13 this Leg

Local time: 1200 GMT

Leg Number: Leg 7, Azores to Tower Bridge, London



Position - Latitude, Longitude: 49/51'N, 1/54'W

Position relative to land: Off the Cherbourg Penisula

Distance travelled in last 24hrs: 148 nautical miles (274 km)

Distance sailed this Leg: 1,393 miles (2,580 km)

Total distance from Ardmore: 27, miles (52,154 kilometres)

Course: 095T

Speed: 4.9 kts (motor sailing, tide against us)

Next Port: tbc

Approx distance to next port: tbc

Wind: NW F1-2 (1-6kts)

Sea: Near calm

Barometer: 1028 steady

Air Temp: 19C, with wind chill 19C

Sea temp: 13.8C

Cloud cover: 25%

Bird sightings over the day: Gannets,Fulmars, Kittiwakes, Manx Shearwaters



Notes: A busy day coping with unaccustomed shipping all around us. Having sun and a fair bit of smog. We need to quicken our reactions as we enter our real world. Motoring around all night thinking of where to go.


Into the mist......John.

Date: Friday 4 June 2004

Day: 316, Day 14 this Leg

Local time: 1200 GMT

Leg Number: Leg 7, Azores to Tower Bridge, London

Position - Latitude, Longitude: In a quiet port on the north coast of France
Position relative to land: Lying alongside a stone wall adjacent to some
beautiful gardens

Distance travelled in last 24hrs: 100 nautical miles (185 km)

Distance sailed this Leg: 1,493 miles (2,765 km)

Total distance from Ardmore: 28,261, miles (52,339 kilometres)

Course:

Speed:

Next Port:

Approx distance to next port: tbc

Wind:

Sea:

Barometer:

Air Temp: 19C

Sea temp:

Cloud cover: 25%

Bird sightings over the day:






Notes: Got into a quiet French port in fog and rain without a chart. Heavy on the
nerves but very peaceful when we were finally tied up. Everyone in good
spirits. I sat on my own in a park on a bench. What a lucky fellow I have
been, I am very grateful. Surely, I can do better.



Thinking back in those early mornings in Cape Town, writing in the Doghouse
as it grew light on Table Mountain. That was before Trevor, Igor and
Quention arrived. How solid gold Nick, Marie Christine and I pysched
ourselves up for the great voyage across the Southern Ocean. How it was all
worthwhile. Surely I can do better. Not quite done for.



Into the mist......John.

Now go on to 5-9 June 2004, the Honfleur stopover.

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