Atlantic Rally for Cruisers 2007

on Morgan of Marietta from the Raritan Yacht Club

Race story written by Bill Nichols

This event facilitates a trans-atlantic crossing from Las Palmas, in the Canary Islands to St. Lucia, in the southern Caribbean. It is about a 2,700 mile trip which took us 16 days.

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Morgan of Marietta

On board was the Skipper, Colin Golder, Tom Guthrie, Mark Rebovich, and Bill Nichols

Here are some images from Las Palmas

Arc Sail

After much preparation and days of provisioning, we were finally ready to go.

Following commentary is what I sent out as the daily blog. I don't know what Elaine added.

Day 1

Prep- we didn't push off the dock till late. The start was less than a mile away. They officially closed the commercial port so we didn't have to deal with their traffic also.

 The start was wild. There was a 20 knot north breeze for a down wind start. We thought about popping the chute and charging the line, but abandoned that idea when we saw all the boats milling about. About 230 crusing boats getting ready for the 1:00 gun. The line was long, most boats were not fighting for line rights, just trying to avoid running into each other. We had to yell "starboard a few times. Sometimes it worked, other times it didn't. We had this 80 foot on port, coming down on us, we called over, he gave us a quick glance, then kept going. We had to fall off to get out of his way. It was probably the owner driving- didn't know anything about rights of way, except "me first" and "mine is bigger".

 Boats were in pretty close quarters for a while, the big boats moved on, and the rest divided into an eastern and a western group. The eastern group was heading away from shore to avoid the 30+ knot wind in an acceleration zone to the south by the airport. The western boats were going down the coast, many with chutes up straight into the acceleration zone. We were in the middle on a starboard tack run.

 We turned west planning to pass through the wind shadow of Las Palmas about 12 miles down wind. It wasn't really far enough. The wind died and we had to motor for 20 minutes to get through it. On emerging from the wind shadow, the wind was forward and we came up as far as we could. The breeze was stiff, about 17-25 knots, the main was reefed and the jib was partially rolled. Morgan was balanced, powered up nicely, but the sea state tossed us around a bit. As of now, the conditions are the same.

Day 2

By Bill:

We seem to be getting into the watch routine. As what was done in the past on this boat, the watch schedule is broken down into 3- 3hour and 4 - 3 hour watches. Since there are only 4 of us, and 2 watches, the midnight watch alternates. Its Colin & Bill, and Mark & Tom, for now. For the first time, I was up early for my 4:00 AM watch, which gave me time to shave and brush my teeth.

We are in conserve mode with water. Because the seas have been so rough, we couldn't run the water maker. This is because all the sea cocks are shut and the water maker needs sea water, and the galley sink drain to operate. Its an Reverse osmosis filter. It uses electric also, a pressure pump drives the sea water through the filter membranes to produce fresh water, and waste sea water.

The winds have been up and down. We continue with a reef in the main. The wind is northeast, for our rhumbline course, that puts us on a beam or broad reach, depending on the variations. At times the wind has backed and lightened, forcing us to come up a bit to keep the boat stable. For the past day, the winds have been below 20, mostly between 9 & 15 knots true.

We don't see any boats, occasionally a masthead light or 2. We did see a 1000 ft tanker though. The AIS picked him up when he was 20 miles out, off out starboard beam. the AIS system uses VHF to receive the course, direction, and other data transmitted by commercial ships. The AIS predicted the closest point of approach to be less than a mile, at times, 0 miles. Colin spoke to him on the radio when we were 10 miles out, just to let him know we were there. When we got close enough, and were unable to predict whether he would cross ahead or behind us, we had to alter course. We came up and crossed his stern.

Right now, (5:30 AM local (GMT) time) the wind is 10k true, and Colin called me on deck to shake out the reef in the main. Its a beautiful night. Partly cloudy, about 70 deg. We are doing about 6 knots over the ground, our course is 260. The seas have calmed down also. The moon was full 2 days ago, its waning now. The moonlight is so bright on deck, you can almost read. I will take my star book out later. Its kind of hard to see the stars with the moon so bright, We can see some planets though. So far I have been unable to find the North star. Its low on the horizon here, and there have always been some clouds and haze to the north.

Day 3

Winds are holding out, but could be better. We haven't seen it drop below 7, but they have moved aft. Before dark the spinnaker topic came up, but was put off until morning. Meanwhile through the night we had to come above course to keep the boat moving and stable. Last watch, they set us on wing & wing and we are still there. Current winds are northeast @ 10 knots. We just had a little sprinkle blow through, but the temperature is warmer, maybe 73 or so.

On the radio net this morning, another boat reported a man overboard. It happened overnight when they were shaking a reef out of the main. They reported that he had a life jacket on, but wasn't clipped in. He went off the stern. They dropped the sails and motored back to get him, and continued on.

Last night we had a gourmet dinner of spaghetti boulenaise, complete with red wine and tieramesu cake for desert. We all ate together in the cockpit.

Day 4

By Bill:

Still going wing & wing. The wind is blowing to where we are going ! For the last day, the wind is still E-NE, 10-18 Knots. There was a short time when the wind went NE and we jibed the jib back, but we have been on starboard tack from the beginning. We are making our course of 250 deg True. Speed over the ground (and VMG) has been between 7 and 8 knots. Given this, we are reluctant to put up the chute. We downloaded the weather gribs today. The wind should stay the same for the next few days.

We had another gourmet dinner last night of roasted chicken breast and garden salad. We ate in the cockpit again, which is slightly challenging, given that we are underway. The seas have calmed down considerably, but they still hit the boat from the stern quarter. The point of sail doesn't improve the stability either.

The temperature is about 70 day and night. The skies are partly cloudy. Last night we went through a few sprinkles, but not tonight. The stars are out in a big way, until the moon rises around 11:00. The boat is still on Canary time (GMT) from when we started, but we are really in the next local time zone west. When we started watch yesterday morning at 7:00, it was still dark. Dawn was around 7:30. We are getting about 12 hours of daylight, as expected. Eventually we will have to extend a day watch by an hour to compensate for the local time zone.

The computer is showing just over 2,000 miles to go.

Day 5

By Bill: (15:30 boat time)

The watch following the last email, the wind lightened a little. We were down to 8-12k. Since the seas were fairly calm, we set the 1.5 oz chute. Its been flying since 8:00 this morning. Right now we have 12k, out of the northeast,  and we are making course @ 8k over the ground. Winds are predicted to stay the same for at least another day, then go east. Its an easy ride, the autohelm - "Joe", has the wheel, and we watch Joe steer, and the sails. Occasionally we have to tweak the course for our sail trim. Its a sunny day, maybe 74 out with a breeze.

We ran the engine for a few hours this morning to charge the batteries and make water. We have 5 empty bottles that we keep refilling. Our water tanks are still nearly full.

Each day, there is a radio net where boats can call in to the net controller in each division. I am 1 of 5 net controllers for our division. I was the first one, and then we alternate. I had to do it again on the 2nd day because the person that was supposed to do it couldn't get his radio working. The call in is optional if you have another way of getting your boats position report to ARC control.  Yesterday we were out of range of most of the boats, today I was unable to hear any boats during the call in. We put some miles in between and the other boats can't keep up with us. It looks like we are 3rd from the finish in our division so far, uncorrected. The other boats which we have been reporting positions for are further back, 160 miles to 340 miles. The radio net is during the day when radio wave propogation is generally poor. The starting frequency is 4120 mhz. We have no problem communication with the transmitter in Belgium for our email, so I know that we don't have a problem with our radio.

Curry chicken tonite. should be good!

(18:30)

The curry was good. At dinner we decided to fly the chute through the night. The wind built to 20 knots and the seas increased. After the watch changed around 19:30 I was below and I heard a loud bang, thump, and Colin started yelling. The chute guy came out of the self tailer and we had to get all hands on deck for an emergency takedown. After that we decided to go back to wing & wing. In 20 knots, the boat is well balanced, and maybe a half knot slower than with the chute up. All ended well and we the chute will fly again tomorrow.

Day 6

It was another really nice day sailing. Mostly sunny, with some clouds. The winds are the same, during the day, northeast, 10-15k, tonite 15-20k. The boat is screaming along, still wing& wing ,7 to 8k over the ground. The wind has moved east-northeast again. We are going a few degrees north of course.
The watch schedule goes on. Today we had the 1st and 3rd 4 hour day watches. Tomorrow is the easy day because after the last 3 hour night watch, we get 4 hours off to sleep. Then during the day, only 1 of the 4 hour watches. For this we have to cook dinner.
Since the emergency spinnaker takedown, there has been no talk of putting it back up, as long as the wind holds. Right now we are sailing too deep anyway, so we would have to come up above course to fly it. Jybing would take us too far south.
Down range, we have a low pressure system that might be in our way. It's still 4 to 5 days off, so its too early do do anything. We might get some rain from it though. The early plan is to stay north of it if possible. The short range plan remains the same. We should have these winds for a few more days until we run into the low.
Less than 2,000 miles to go.

Day 7

It started out to be a regular day- same wind, same sun, wing & wing, can't complain. Then the wind went east, so we jybed. Since this was the first tack or jybe since the start if the race, it was bound to be a learning experience.  We wrapped the jib around the headstay. Nothing terrible, it came out after a few minutes of coaxing. Then, more of the same till dinner which was another gourmet meal of pork chops with orange sauce ala Colin. The side dish was carrots and instant idaho mashed potatoes. Joe, the autopilot, steered while the 4 of us had dinner at the table like gentlemen, our ration of beer safely tucked between our legs so it didn't fly off the table as the boat rolled about. Dessert was a cherry tart, also excellent.
It was also a time correction day. Since we are moving west, we needed to adjust the clock. The dinner shift was made an hour longer to compensate, and the boat's clock was turned back and we repeated the 1800 hour.
The 1900 watch with Colin started out routine also. Then we were overtaken by a squawl. Lots of wind, and some rain. Nothing major, wind speeds topped out at about 35 or so. Wind directions all over the compass. Since we were still wing & wing there was a narrow slot that Colin had to steer. We woke up the off watch a little late, although they were up already from the tossing about. Then it was our turn to be tossed about while we tried to sleep. I had a dream that I was in a scene from an X-men movie. And so it goes, another watch, 1000 miles from the start, another 1,700 to go

Morgan Day 8 12/3

All is well. The wind has gone forward a bit, kind of changing our
sailing mode. We currently have winds SE @15, which was not predicted
the last time we updated the weather info. We just put in another grib
request for fresh data.
The beginning of the trip is over. We are approaching half way, should
hit that mark today.
Just noticing kind of a body cycle in the watch schedule. The night
watches are an even 12 hours with 4 shifts. The day watches are
different though. Since there are 3 watches in 12 hours, one team does
2, the other team does 1, and it alternates each day. The team that has
the 2, comes off a 3 hour night watch, does a 4 hr day, 0700 to 1100, is
off for 4, then back on from 1600 to 1900, then the night watches start
again.

Since it's hard to sleep midday the team that has the 2 day watches has
to suck it up and wait until the following morning, 0700 to 1100 to get
some sleep. This is where Colin and I are right now. Waiting to get some
sleep.

On the sleep subject, anyone following our position reports will notice
that we showed a 19 mile day on 1 Dec. This is because I reported 03
minutes of longitude instead of 33 minutes. We really had a great day. I
submitted a correction, but I dont know if they will change it. If not,
we will show a 320 mile day when they post the 12/2 positions, which
they haven't done yet (its 0400 boat time on 3 Dec)
Looks like we will be getting into some rain coming up. The weather is
significantly warmer though. It is shorts and a windbreaker on deck at
night. We heard there was snow at home.

The image above is a screen shot from MaxSea, our navigation software program, on day 10.

The green line is the path that the boat went. Daily 1200 Z positions are shown. Positions ahead were estimated to help predict wind & weather. The red line is the original great circle rhumbline. The wind is also shown for a small area of ocean. This image was our world for 18 days. Questions asked many times per day were- How far have we gone ?, and How far do we have to go?

Morgan Day 9 12/4

Right now, @ 1400 (12/3) we have southeast winds at 10-18k. This puts
the wind forward of the beam for us. We are heeled over on port tack.
The seas are fairly calm now, but were worse this morning. The winds
were predicted to go aft already but haven't. It’s partly sunny out with
temperatures around 80. A sprinkle blew through earlier. We continue to
make course to the finish. We are past half way with 1320 miles to go.

Dinner was pork loin and mashed potatoes. Despite what some of you might
think, we are not stuffing ourselves with food day and night. Basically
we are having 2 meals per day. A light lunch and dinner. There is plenty
of breakfast stuff too, if we want it, but mostly we don't.

0230 (12/4) As night fell, the winds continued to go forward, we went
through some squalls, then rain, then the wind died. It appears that the
low moved differently that the prediction and instead of it crossing in
front of us, we broke through into the center. Clear skies, no wind. We
fired up the iron jib after a few minutes of wallowing. It was not a
happy event, and to top it off, a hatch was left open and a bed was
soaked, and a whole hot chocolate got spilled into the already smelly
refrigerator. We continue on......

Subject: Morgan Day 11

We are back. The weather gribs were downloaded yesterday, so this is a
light traffic day.
0800 12/4
The engine has been running and we have been under power now for nearly
11 hours. The wind speed is about 2 knots, about 8 knots less than
predicted, and the watch schedule continues on. There isn't a lot to do
while the engine is running. We turn on the water maker and add to the
tanks.

0300 12/5
We finally got enough wind to sail on, 10 knots. Not really from a
direction that we like, but any wind is better than no wind. We sailed a
little above course for a little until the wind backed and we went back
to a broad reach.

1000 12/5
We set the 1.5 oz. chute in 15 knots of breeze. Went up fine, but we had
to come up a little above course. We flew it for our 4 hour shift.
Toward the end, we were lifted to 30 deg. above course and dropped it
with all hands on deck. After that event was over, Colin hit the rack,
and it was time for Mark and I to bathe. We were both really hot and
sweaty. It's day 10, so we were overdue. Mark went first. He stood on
the swim platform on the stern, and taking scoops with a bucket on a
rope of sea water dumped it over his head. We have special soap for salt
water, so he soaped up with that and rinsed again with sea water. After
that, there is a little hand shower in the stern to rinse off with fresh
water. I didn't want to stand on the swim platform because I was afraid
that I would fall off. We were still under way. I sat on the swim
platform, with my feet in the water, and washed up that way.  It did
feel good to cool off and be clean again. We have less than 1000 miles
to go.

2200 12/5
After my watch I came below, just in time to ride a squall from below.
The others are on deck with 30 knot winds, not much rain. Before the
squall, we were 20 deg high on the course. We were on a broad reach and
we can't sail deeper without the sails flopping about. The talk was to
jybe the jib back over and pole it out to wing & wing, port tack.

Mark & Bill after a salt water bath

Subject: Morgan Day 12 12/7

1500 12/6
Last night we spent our whole shift being chased by a rainstorm. There
was more wind than rain, pushing us along nicely toward St. Lucia. Winds
in the 20 knot range. This morning to get closer to course, we winged
the jib out, then within an hour the wind came around and we had to
jybe. Since the seas were up again, jybing is no easy deal. First we
roll up the jib and attach the pole on the other side. Then we jybe the
main. It helps if there is another hand so Mark came up and helped. Once
that was done, we polled out the jib on the other side. Its getting hot
during the day, especially in the sun. 

Right now the computer is showing 867 miles to go. Seems like a hop skip
and a jump compared to the distance we have traveled already.

Subject: Morgan Day 13 12/8
1100 12/7

Last night, almost as soon as we came on deck, the other guys went below, Colin wanted to jybe. The wind shift had lifted us about 25 deg above course. Not wanting to make hasty decisions, we decided that if the wind held, we would jybe when the next watch comes up in 3 hours. And it did, so we did. We are getting better at it. Kind of cookbook, we all know the drill. I got to go up on the foredeck and move the pole under the forestay and on to the other jib sheet. At night we try not to go out of the cockpit, and if we do, definitely with a PFD and we try to clip in. Going up onto the foredeck, there is no reason not to clip in. Its the most dangerous part of the boat. There is a really nice light up there so at least visibility is not a problem. After the jybe, we went below as we were due back on deck in 2.5 hours.
It looks like we are doing well in the race so far. We are first in our division. The boats in 2nd & 3rd place behind us are way back, and they owe us a little time. What we do not know is how much they used their engine compared to us.
The days and nights are continually getting warmer.
Right now the wind is ENE @ 20 with gusts to 30. The waves are big, some may be 15 ft. hitting the stern every 10 seconds pushing us toward St.Lucia. If we get one just right we surf down it reaching speeds of 11 knots over the ground.

Before dinner around 6:00 I was in my rack, I noticed the wind starting to howl. Then some activity on deck. We broke a jib sheet. They rolled up the jib no problem, but then we had to fix it. At first we thought that the line parted, but its core is kevlar light and should be good for 14,000 lbs. Turns out it had chafed at the pole jaw. First we put a reef in the main. I went up to the foredeck with Tom to re-tie it, after getting our harnesses on. Its harder to do than it sounds. Mark was at the helm trying to hold the boat downwind in 25 knots in rough seas. Lucky it was still light out. We re-tied the broken one on, then the lazy sheet was about to go also, so we had to cut that one off and re-tie it also. 
Then we took a break for dinner. It was BBQ ribs, imported from NJ by me, baked beans and fresh muffins for dessert. We finished just in time for our watch, weather was coming in, so I got my gear on and went outside. Colin followed shortly after. The wind continued to build. A squall was overtaking us, the seas came up and shortly we were running with 1 reef, and no jib in 35 plus knots of wind. What a ride! There was a short lull, some rain, then we got hit with another squall. This time we were running in 50 knots! The boat was powered up, but didn't go above 9 knots over the ground. As of 2200, we haven't put the jib back out, we are waiting to see if the weather holds.

Subject: Morgan Day 14 12/9

1100 12/8
Last night was a tough one for me. We had the 0100 to 0400 shift. I misread my watch in the dark and got up an hour earlier, got my foul weather gear on, harness, and went up on deck, still half asleep. Then I found out I was an hour early. So I went below for another 45 minutes of sleep. Then it was the longest 3 hours ever before I could get back in bed. There was still 25 knots of wind from local rainstorms. At 0700 the weather was still rainy, so I opted to stay below and do the dishes from last night. Anything to fight boredom.

The day shift went well. Winds were about 15-20 knots from the Northeast. We had a double reef in the main in case of bad storms and we were sailing with no jib until afternoon when it seemed like the threat of thunderstorms had decreased. Dinner was pizza. The propane is holding out.

0500 12/9
The wind died late in the evening. The last few shifts have been slogging it out, fighting inch by inch. It reminds me of racing in Long Island Sound. At least the seas flattened out.

Thanks to all for your support emails. Please hold off on any more because we are very limited in air time that we use to receive them over the radio. It takes us time to get the weather info and also fleet messages from the race committee.

Subject: Morgan Day 15 12/10

1900 12/9

No wind overnight changed to light wind in the morning. Before we came
on watch again at 1200 the wind was around 8 knots off the beam and it
was decided that we would set the chute. For these winds and angle the
0.75 oz. reaching chute was selected. (we have 2 chutes, the other is a
1.5 oz, and its better for running in big wind). I went forward to rig
the pole. Mark already put the chute on deck and clipped it in. When
this was done some storm systems were spotted potentially messing with
our spinnaker run so we decided to delay the set. In 20 minutes the all
clear was given and up it went without a hitch. The angle was very
tight, on the beam. In puffs, the apparent wind angle went as far
forward as 70 deg. without collapsing. After about an hour we had to
drop it because or some more storms coming out way. It was hot, maybe
80+ and a little sprinkle from the showers felt refreshing. But it
wasn't enough.

The previous day Mark (we share the 2 bed bunk room) commented that the
bunk room was smelling a little gamey. Later he confessed that he
realized that it was himself that he was smelling. For my part, I
realized that both of us were smelling pretty bad and we were probably
due for another bath. Mark went first again on the stern. There is as
much 82 deg seawater that you want to scoop up with a bucket and dump on
your head. We had some special soap for salt water that seemed to do the
trick. After the salt water bath a rinse with the precious fresh water
was allowed from the hand shower on the stern. I went next.

After the storms went through, they left us with wind forward of the
beam @ 20 knots. They reefed the main and we were jammin to St. Lucia.

Dinner was crab cakes with peas and couscous. After that we shook the
reef out of the main and continued with wind ESE @ 12 knots.

0200 12/10
It was a really beautiful evening. Temperature around 72 with a 12 knot
breeze just forward of the beam. The speed over ground was 7.5 knots on
course to St. Lucia. After that the wind piped up and backed to ENE @ 15
knots. We should be in St. Lucia tomorrow.

Subject: Morgan Day 16 12/11

12/10 1900
Still going...the same ENE @ 17k winds. We ran through a bunch of storms this morning. After that, it turned into a sunny broad reach w/ 15k winds.
Dinner was bbq ribs. After dinner the wind piped up to 20 and we are on a broad reach course for the finish. About 24 hours to go if everything holds out.

12/11 0500
Its been a rough night of storms. Sailing w/ main only, the 20 k wind has backed and we are barely making course, almost dead downwind. Good speed though, 8k. Some storms forced us to run off south which is hurting our angle now. 115 miles to go.

I have been home for 2 days, the gear still isn't unpacked.
I just wanted to closeout the ARC blog. All in all, it was a good trip, and a great experience.
All was not all peaches and cream out there however. I tried to keep my blog transmit to a minimum because of our air time limitations. There was a lot going on. Sailing is an extreme sport. The wind was continuous and strong for days at a time. Squalls threw 50 knot winds everyone's way. On one boat, an accidental jybe tossed boiling water on someone forcing emergency evacuation back to Las Palmas. Out of approx. 230 boats in the event, there was 1 boat abandoned, another sunk, and yet on a third boat, a skipper lost his life.

It was a fast passage, only 16 days for us, and we were the first in our division to finish. In the big scheme of things, we came in 40th out of 169 boats, and 9th in our class of 22. We were penalized for our 23 hours motoring. There were only 3 boats with more motoring hours. All the boats ahead of us motored much less, many not at all. Almost all of our motoring was done in 1 stint, when we sailed into a hole in the middle of the trip which the weather gribs did not predict.

While we chose to go down the great circle rhumbline, the winning boats all went south, some diverging by as much as 250 miles playing down wind jybing angles and avoiding unfavorable wind conditions. Google earth was great for checking these routes.
 

Here are some images from St. Lucia