off the screen

After my last post, we entered a stormy area, with very heavy rainfall. JP took advantage of that by going on deck close to the mast to take a shower. This when we started seeing lightning and hearing thunder. At first they were 5 seconds apart then 4 then 3 then 2 at which point JP came back down in the boat. While he was kooking up through the hatch he saw the ball of lightning hit the top of the mast. All lioghts went out and smoke started to come out of the voltage regulator of the wind vane. The computer went out and we realized that we had lost everything electronic (instruments, computer, satphone, tracker, etc...) Fotunately, the hand held Garmin 76 was still alive as well as the notebook. We were able to set up a chart plotter on the note book and to continue navigating towards Le Marin in Martinique wherre we arrived on december 9th, some 25 days of a very slow crossing (I took 18 days in 1996 with my First 38 Beneteau). All the time. we were very much aware of the fact that we probably had disappeared from the screen and that family and friends were probably worrying about us. We were lucky enough to establishVHF contact with a passing sailboat, participating in the ARC Rallye and ask them to inform our organizing committee that we had been hit by lightning and had lost all electronics including means of communicatio. Once in Martinique time was shared between getting the boat able to sail again and various evening parties with the Atlantic Odyssey participants. We left Le Marin on the 14th after filling up the fuel tank at french prices (ouch !) with no instruments and limited navigation aids. For the trip, Marianne had joined us, so we were going to San Juan directly.

wet sailing

We had a clear goal: By noon be at less than 400 n.m. from the line. And it
was looking good until 11:30. That's when the showers started steeling all
the wind. And it kept coming heavy rain after heavy rain. At some point we
even thought that there was enough time for Tifille to go to the bathroom.
So she went up, gave it a first try and had to run for cover before
anything could be achieved. Then eventually she went up again and without
wasting time to look for the proper aligment with the earth magnetic field
she did it and came back down in a hurry. The afternoon looks much better.
We are doing 6.5 knots on a direct course towards the finish line with 384
n.m. to go, so it looks good for coming in on the 9th early morning
like maybe 9 in the morning. that would be great !

wet sailing

We had a clear goal: By noon be at less than 400 n.m. from the line. And it
was looking good until 11:30. That's when the showers started steeling all
the wind. And it kept coming heavy rain after heavy rain. At some point we
even thought that there was enough time for Tifille to go to the bathroom.
So she went up, gave it a first try and had to run for cover before
anything could be achieved. Then eventually she went up again and without
wasting time to look for the proper aligment with the earth magnetic field
she did it and came back down in a hurry. The afternoon looks much better.
We are doing 6.5 knots on a direct course towards the finish line with 384
n.m. to go, so it looks good for coming in on the 9th early morning
like maybe 9 in the morning. that would be great !

coming in

The spinnaker (actually a gennaker) was successfully set up yesterday at
5:20 p.m. TU. Since then jp , arthur and myself relayed each other at the
helm. Arthur needs constant adjusment with the wind changing constantly in
direction and force This morning we 669 n.m. from the finish line our speed
being anything between a and 6 knots. The weather is nice with few clouds,
hot sun but still enough swell to make us roll heavily. We can still, if
the wind picks up arrive on the 8th, more probably on the 9th. Yesterday JP
redid the gaz connections and made the stove work properly. he cooked a rib
of 2,2 pounds whch was delicious.As for drinks before meals, we ran out of
Ricard, Cassis (for the kir) rum went long time ago except for one shot
that we kept for the first one to see land. but westill have enough wine,
red and white, to take us to the finish

sail in sight

This morning at 08:00 local time (TU-2) JP saw a sail on the horizon. It
got nearer quickly because we were on opposite tacks and at 08:40 TUMI boat
number 41 sailed across our bow around 50 meters away. It the gained on us
but slowly so JP decided to set the gennaker. Unfortunately the sock kept
wrapping itself around the sail and after one hour of hard work on the part
of JP, the attempt was aborted to be resumed after lunch. The weather is
postcard standard, blue sea, few clouds and a soft following wind around 15
knots. Today JP is cooking the last piece of meat while it is still safe to
eat with a fridge out of order. All in all the loss of perishable has been
limited and we will now switch to non perishable. We have enough to last
until we arrive in Martinique. Then we will take care of the bacteria with
good rum punch and spicy food.

la calmouille

cette fois ci on est bien dedans avec encore 877 n.m. a couvrir. Le vent
apparent ne depasse plus dix noeuds et la vitesse du bateau est plus proche
de 4 que de 5 noeuds. A moins que Eole ne fasse un petit miracle, nous
risquons de n'arriver que le 10, jour de l'arrivee de laurence et Marianne.
Cela va etre juste et nous risquons egalement de ne pas etre prets a
repartir le 12 pour Puerto Rico comme prevu. Les voiles battent bruyamment
et le bateau roule car la mer ne s'est pas encore aplatie. c'est dans ces
conditions que la patience devient plus que jamais une vertu cardinale. Il
commence aussi a faire chaud et on est rapidement en transpiration.
Vivement Mardi prochain. Nous avons encore environ 50 heures demoteur dans
le reservoir et nous comptons bien en profiter au maximum.

New disaster

This morning the return of the rolling got me to up on deck.There I found
out that we wereagain without mainsail. It opeened up in the upper part
between the back line and the front.Jean-Paul made it clear to me that in
his mind I was responsible for that new incident for havingset the main
sheet to tight when we got beccalmed during the night and I set the main in
the mddle while restarting the engine and that pulled to hard on the back
of the sail and caused the backline to rupture and then the sail to open
up. JP has every right to be mad at me after the hard work he put in for
the first repair. He is now attempting to repair again. I should not allow
myself to be depressed, but I am. Impossible now to know when we will
finish and to think that it probably is my doing is not a` joyful thought !
To make matters` worse, the wind has dropped considerably and we are moving
at 3.5 knots ! And there are still 1030 n.m. to go. You can do the maths.

Firmin callinf sick again

This morning at 7h30 Iwas woken up by Arthur (the electric pilot) working
his hydraulic pump furiously. I came on deck and it turned out that one of
the steering lines of Firmin (the windvane) had broken again. It took
Jean-Paul just a few minutes to det up what was left of the line and soon
Firmin was at work again steering us towards Martinique which is still 1130
n.m. away. We still expect to arrive on the 8th early afternoon.
Fortunately wee have a replacement linesent by the manufacturer of the
device which we will install in Martinique. At this point 8 days feel to me
like eternity. But I know that eventually we are going to go thru it.
We are told that we are now in 10th place and we like it considering that
we've had to sail without the main for several days. And in 8 days things
can happen. Right now we are in a soft patch of less tan 20 knots of wind
when we need a minimum of 20. It might still come and the soft patch affect
others. So, it's not over until it is over.

stumbling along

We are still having to make do without a mainsail losing up to 2 knots in
the process. But not for long. Jean-Paul just completed a daring,
meticulous and tedious repair on the sail with the material that was given
to me by my broyher Ajut, National Captain of the French Brotherhood of the
coast before my circumnavigation 2009 to 2011. It had never been used
before but it is now showing its great value. Thank you my Brother. within
a short peeriod of time, waiting for the`skies to clear up, the main is
going to go back up and we will be able to resume sailing the Odyssey and
limit the number of boats overtaking us. We still have 1250 n.m. to go
which might take another 10 days. So be it. We are prepared. . . .almost
because we are running out of rhum and possibly Ricard and possibly Kir but
we still have enough wine , so we will survive. Jean-Paul must be exhausted
and he needs to get plenty of sleep to recover from this wonderful deed.
Tomorrow hopefully we shall know where we stand now with the rest of the
fleet and what the ETA is going to be with the mainsail and the soft
forecast.

same old, same old

to write the blog, while sitting at the chart table, I have to press my
right leg against the underneath of the table by pushing as hard as I can
on the floor, to try and minimize sliding sideways. Then I have to grab the
keyboard with my left hand to stop it from flying away towards the galley.
There is not much that I can do about the mouse butpick it up from time to
time on the floor.
Last night Jean-Paul was ejected from his bunk and landed against a
bulkhead with his left knee and hurt himself. I crashed again in the aft
cabin hitting the starboard bulkhead with my back hurting myself again in
an area already sensirized by theprevious crashes. We are both fed up with
this constant heavy rolling. The wind has calmed down but not the seas.
Today I was unable to raisse anybody on the SSB radio net and we have to
rely on our outside contacts to find out whether we are holding up. Other
than that, it is warm and sunny, the water is of a magnificent blue and we
entertain ourselves by timing the flights of the flying fishes. With the
forecast calling for calmer winds we might only arrive on the 8th.
Stay tuned.

RORO

The rolling is becoming moresevere with a swell between 3 and 4 meters high
and the wind straight from the back ENE at 30 knots sustained.During the
morning shift. the steering lines of Firmin broke . actually. therigger in
granville had installed a sleeve on the line which started slipping under
tension and then slipped out of the hole where it is attached to the water
paddle. A few hours later, it was the turn of the other line. Jean-Paul
redid the knots hanging upside down from above Firmin and now that the`
sleeves are out of play, we feel more secure. We have now covered more
miles (1529) than what we have left (1615) and we think that unless the
wind drops which is not in the forecast, We have` 10 days of sailing.
Arrival now estimatedas being december 7th at 4 p.m. Jean-Paul myself and
Tifille will be delighted when we tie up at number 5 dock. We all need to
rest and catch up on sleep and rhum.

paying the toll

This morning overcastsky and squalls all around us but we were still moving
along well with full main and three turns in the genoa. Then, while Jean-
Paul was assisting Firmin at the wheel we got hit by a vicious 40 4to 45
knots gust of wind and the boat came up to the wind. I took the helm,
trying to go back to hving the wind in our back while Jean-Paul rushed to
the mast to take one reef down. That is when we realized that there was
hole in its upper part. Since then Jean-Paul is intent on repairing the
sail at sea. By now the wind has settled down into 30 knots from ESE.
During a very short respite Jean-Paul has managed to take the main down.
His intentions are to set up shop on the boom, with a harness but lying
down on the sail. I know Jen-Paul well enough to know thhat nothing will
stop him until he can succeedand we can resume racing forward.Basically we
are going to wait for better weather conditions whiich noormally occur`late
afternoon or early morning. I keep my fingers crossed, hoping that nothing
will go wrong during that daring attempt and making sure that we take all
safety precautions possible. We will know within the next 24 hours. Right
now we are sailing under genoa alone and doing close to 6 knots.

nuit de crise

we got the wind smack in our rear and Firmin is having a hard time steering
straight. At the change of watch, at midnight, we were hit by a squall with
heavy rain in it. Jean-Paul was not wearing his foul weather gear and got
drenched. We jibed as quick as we could since the wind had shifted to
South. At the end of my shift at`3 in the morning. same thing. Heavy rain
and jibing. The wind was back to East hence again wind at the back which
implies that we are moving slowly and it is rather uncomfortable. We tried
the spinnaker, but another squall showed up and we took it down to avoid
taking undue risks. For the day , We only covered 129 miles and closed on
the finish by 119miles. We are possibly losing ground on the others.
However, they probably have to face the same conditions. We will have to
wait for infos from Eric to know where we stand. Maybe sometime this
afternoon

move on

there was more to the story of the whale than what I told you. When Jean-
Paul spotted it shortly before 9 a.m. it was on our starboard side on a
collision course with us. Jean-Paul stayed ready to take the helm to avoid
hitting it . Then it disappeared below our bow and reappeared on the port
side swimming alongside us. Jean-Paul felt that they were staring at each
other. Then it rolled over to show us one of the fins that thy have on each
side as to say "hello !" and then swam away south. For Jean-Paul it was a
very emotional moment and he was quite excited about it . The same day
around 5 p.m. we had a group oh hundreds of dolphins coming to us to play
with the boat. Quite a sight ! Today the winf got very soft all day and
around 3 p.m. we set up the spinnaker to jump from 5 to 7 knots. Firmin
can't cope with that windand on top of that we see a squall approaching
from behind.Thi is an emergency situation and I have to leave the keyboard
to take the spi down. Thi was done in about 20 minutes and we are noe safe.
This morning we got good news from marianne and marie. Marianne saw us in
fourth place, Marie in 5th and eric, my son in6th. Altogether, it gives us
a big boost, as we did not think when we left Lanzarote that there probably
only a couple of boats that would slower than us. So to be in the leading
group is a great feeling. All that haapened only thanks to Jean-Paul who
has been doing 99 % of the work since we left Granville to the point of
shaming me to feel like a useless quantity on the boat . It's actually
quite humiliating considering 58 years of experience at sea and more than
200,000 milesby sailboat, one circumnavigation and seven transats.
Hopefully I will have recovered enough once we get to the Bahamas to be
able to run the boat again on my own.

Poop and Scoop

I have read somewhere that the reason why dogs keep turning round and round
is that they want somehow to align themselves with the local magnetic
field. So to do their business, they have to find the proper alignment.
squat, keep their balance and do it while staying relaxed. It was quite
mission impossible foe Tifille at the beginning, especially on a boat
bouncing all over the place. But she finally mastered it doing it in the
cockpit under the supervision of Jean-Paul who proves to be very patient
and understanding. However to perform that exercise, she first has to eat
and that is not going very well. She keep sliding out of reach of the food
bowl. Same problem for the water. However she has now settled down in a
routine where she communicates with us her needs quite clearly. She will be
so happy to reach land !
This morning shortly before nine 0'clock Jean-Paul spotted a whale crossing
our course. We saw it very very close. But it did not seem to bother her.
We have ran into a problem with the refrigeration on the boat. Both the
freezer and the fridge have stopped working and we have identified the main
cause as being the batteries not keeping a charge at all. We probably will
have to install new batteries on arrival.

Purgatory

We are no longer in hell but it is by no means heaven.The seas always take
much longer than the wind to calm down. We are now in a softer patch of
weather wit northerly winds at 8 to 12 knots with a long oceanic swell from
the north and Papy jovial is still rolling quite a bit but it is
manageable. I am convinced that the sery of crashes has come to an end.
Jean-Paul is planning to shave`my head aroun the wound and do a new
dressing. I might not look as handsome as I would like to but if it allows
the situation to evolve better, so be it. The good news is that we can
sail a direct course to Martiniquewhich is still 2167 miles away. I now
anticipate to get there in the night 7 to 8 December. So we will only spend
in that case 4 days in Martinique. But there is still hope to benefit from
the real tradewinds at 15 to 20 in which case we might gain almost 2 days.
As usual, time will tell. Apart from that, we still have some problems with
the refrigerator, the group displaying a red flashing light. It could be
low battery, or the group being too hot. We have to wait for martinique to
do something about it.

The Coconut milk run

It was ` supposed to be a family affair,with kids dogs and barbecue, T-
shirts and shorts in the beaming sunlight of the trade winds, First we
were supposed tro do a leisurely sail around the Canarias. Instead we
founf ourselves battling calm weather, Followed by rough seas and strong
winds up to 35 knots . Its beginning to look more like sailing in the Irish
Seas. Papy Jovial is throwing us up into all kindsof directions. With heavy
rolling an slamming into the`seas. I crashed several times,once hurting ny
back side big time and then I hit with the Back of my head one of the
stairs of the companionway, This time it drew blood, and Jean-Paul dressed
me up with a bandagearound my head that makes me look like a rugbyman, I
will be OK. I took some Dafalgan then slept two hours and I was fine.
Aeverthat to say that crossing the Allantic East to west can never be
assumed to be just a wal in the park. This my seventh crossing and
everytime we've had to pay the toll. "Homme libre, toujours tu cheriras la
mer" (Ch.Baudelaire)

D.O.B.

last night, midnight UTC, Iwas om watch in the cockpitbusy doing the
transmission of our position with the tradking device, A jerky movement of
the boat threw me against the coaming of the cockpit, causing the device to
fly off my hands , fall on deck and roll over board.Device Over
Board.Another hole in my credit card !
I am posting this so that nobody worries when Papy Jovial disappears from
the reports on cornellsailing.com. I will transmit by email to the
organisation every eight hours our position course and speed hoping thay
somehoe they can krrp us in the reports

rayon d'action au moteur

Au depart, l'intention etait d'organiser un evenement non competitif mais
plutot une croisiere familiale. En realite, c'est maintenant devenu un
concours a celui qui aura lu plus grand rayon d'action au moteur. D'autant
que les "regles" etablies par l'organisation nous paraissent plutot
optionnelles entre les departs voles par pres d'une minute et un bateau
choisissant de passer au nord de grand canaria. Les conditions meteo, a
savoir une grosse zone de calme ou de tout petit temps au sud de
l'archipel, etaient parfaitement connues avant le depart. Si nous avions
ete en croisiere nous aurions pris l'option evidente de passer entre
lanzarote et fuentaventura puis de faire de l'ouest. Au meeting des
skippers, il a ete dit qu'il n'y avait pas une grosse difference entre la
route directe et le contournement de l'archipel. En fait il y a 25 milles
de difference et peut etre deux ou trois jours a batailler dans les calmes.
Apres l'arrivee, l'organisation devrait publier les heures moteur de
chacun. Nous voyons bien sur les grib qu'il y a plus de vent de SW dans
notre nord qui nous permettrait de mettre de l'ouest dans notre cap. Nous
sommes de nouveau au moteur apres avoir fait deux heures de voile. Depuis
le depart nous avons fait plus de 24 heures de moteur. Peut etre que
Atlantic Odyssey a des rapports privilegies avec la compagnie petroliere
locale. Nous marchons a 1800 tours ce q ui reduit notre consommation a 3
litres de l'heure. Nous sommes partis avec un total de 330 litres (le
reservoir du bateau plu un jerrycan) et il nous reste encore a peu pres 90
heures de moteur. Cela devrait nous permettre de trouver du vent

the wind is on strike

Same Old same old. We lost the wind during the night and have been motoring
since. The surface of the sea is smooth all over. not even a ripple. We
expect to keep motoring until tomorrow afternoon. Everybody around us is
doing the same, some faster (maybe the have enough fuel to afford a high
rate of consumption. We are keeping the engine at less than 1800 rpm hoping
to limit the consumption at 3 litres per hour. I will attempt to measure
this afternoon.
This morning, Miss Tifille went to the bow to pee. This better than other
choices of bathroom like the mainsail sheet or the halyards at the bottom
of the mast. The next few days are likely to be boring. Jean-Paul is trying
to put to good use the fishing equipment purchased in Lanzarote. Some Mahi
Mahi would be welcome for lunch. Of course there is no guarantee that we
will catch something. This morning we received the visit of a group of
small dolphins. We took a course WSW looking for some better wind. We know
we can't go as far as the Cape Verde islands which are still some 700 miles
away. We would need 300 miles of wind to get there.