Experiencing the Azores High is an Atlantic Adventure

Considering the dramatic actions being described below it is a triumph that this blog has been written at all. This blog perfectly why crossing the Atlantic is an adventure…

Date :14 January 2018
Time : 12:00 GMT
Position :35.24 N 51.03W
Destination Horta

Good Morning all

Another good day on the good ship Challenger 2, Still sailing with a decent amount of east in our course. In the last 24 hours we have covered approx. 190 nm with a couple of very small showers, sunshine by day with stars at night.

The crew are starting to realise that 2 weeks at sea can be a long time especially when a lot of that is beating to wind, they are all still in very good spirits and looking forward to our upcoming no wind motor followed by a day or so of beam reach sailing.

Once rested / showered (we can run the water maker properly when motoring) we have our final blast in to Horta with 25 – 30 kts North wind.

Our first bread has been made to much applause the second batch (lunch today ) is eagerly awaited, we had a small surprise cockpit party yesterday to celebrate Tony’s birthday with cake and mocktails, he was quite touched and had a bit of salt in his eye.

Apparently he has never had a birthday party mid Atlantic J, happy birthday was sung in many different ways throughout the day.

Sun is still shining, sky is still starry (at night) the good ship Challenger 2 is still steadily making its way to Peters bar J

Messages from the Crew (Day 7 Blog 14/01/2018)

For all those people reading this blog who have family, friends and loved ones on board Challenger 2 I would like to give you an idea of what they are going through and how it is likely to affect them and what you can expect on their return.

Challenger 2 is currently close hauled (sailing as close to the wind as possible) the reason for this is that at this time of year the oval weather system known as the Azores High is quite unstable and yet to settle into a predictable wind and current system, or to put it another way January is not the best time to be in the middle of the Atlantic.

The consequence of this instability is the High is too high and rather than making use of the top part of the revolving oval to push us to the Azores we are faced with the bottom part with the wind against us therefore the need to beat into the wind.

Challenger 2 like all of the Challenge 72’s were built exactly for this kind of sailing (to race the wrong way around the world) so they are more than capable of dealing very safely with a mere 30 knots of wind. (Look for Youtube “Global Challenge Heavy Weather Sailing” for footage of the original race).

So the consequence of all this beating is, our 72 foot 57 ton steel box becomes like a weeklong trip to Alton Towers with no opportunity to get off the rides.

There are two main motions when the boat powers through the now quite significant swell: One is falling off the top of a wave which is comparable to dropping a steel shipping container from height onto a rolling ocean; the second is the sideways impact as the swell hits the boat.

This can be compared to being smashed in the side of your smart car by a soccer mum in a 4 by 4 in Waitrose car park, or for those old enough to remember the annoying kid at the dodgems that took pleasure smashing into you because you stole his girl.

So the combination of these two motions means there are no flat surfaces, no area that doesn’t move violently and no respite from life at 45 degrees.

As we move towards day 5 in this new gravity intense environment the crew are gradually starting to adapt. There are fewer and fewer incidences of Howard crushing people and Ivan launching cereal across the saloon and in general everyone is moving around the boat safely albeit slowly.

So that brings me to how these adaptations may affect your crew member and the possible side effects on their return to dry land.

Signs to look out for:

1, When you collect them from Portsmouth they may be unable to walk in a straight line through Gunwharf Quay and will invariably crash into other people (Howard’s family take note). This is not a consequence of alcohol.

2, They may take to wearing odd combinations of clothing: Shorts, tee shirts and Dubary Boots; Shorts and banana yellow Musto HPX jackets; Leggings Oilies and a neoprene balaclavas. (You know who you are).

3, They may wake up in the middle of the night put on several layers of clothing and go and stand in the garden for 4 hours (if your loved one is a watch leader be particularly careful as they may try to wake the rest of your family up as well).

4, If you ask them to cook anything be aware it will be cooked in one pan served in a bowl with a spoon and possibly eaten standing up or wedged against the cooker.

5, You may hear them muttering in a Captain Oats sort of way about going to the heads “I may be some time”. For those of you that have male crew members living in your house you may find the ‘toilet seat left up’ problem no longer applies, as your man will have learnt to pee sitting down, don’t worry he will return to the less effective method within a few days.

And finally remember that for the first few days their beds will be moving up and down, the ground will be moving up and down, your toilet will be flushed numerous times just because it can be. They will stare innocently at TV, Cars, Busses, Trains etc. and you may well find them standing in the rain looking at the sky.

This may not seem like normal behaviour but they are not “normal” they are sailors and I am sure you will find on their return as I have that they are also: resilient, determined, enthusiastic, and above all good humoured and a little crazy, look after them the world needs more good humoured crazies.

Nick
Mate, Challenger 2

Update from Iain Blair (1530 UTC, Sunday 14 Jan)

Still toiling upwind in the company of “Marcellus Lady” a tanker 20 miles to starboard, bound for Italy. Horta is 1243 nm on bearing 077. We are making 9 kts on 048 in 20-30 kts of wind which is now blowing more from the East. Everyone healthy and cheerful.
Regards to all. IB

Update from Alex (20h15 UTC, Sunday 14 Jan)

Dearest Mum, Dad, Rosie Pose, the Grannys, friends & Just So Crew,

Well this has been quite an adventure. And there was me thinking the Fastnet was a long time at sea! Every day and night seem to roll from one into another and I have lost all concept of dates and days of the week. It seemed normal to cook a cake at 3am this morning to celebrate one of the crew’s birthdays.

Albeit this was at 45 degree angle with 33 knot squalls coming through. My cakes came out of the oven a more rhombus shaped than the standard rectangular but they seemed to go down well at our lunchtime mocktail (mixing two squashes together with some sliced tinned fruit cocktail slices wedged on the side to add that exotic feeling) and cake party in the cockpit.

I continue to call out to eh whales and dolphins with the hope they might appear but to no avail. Our watch have not been so lucky though we have had a few ocean birds come to say hi and a tanker or two pass nearby.

Dreams as mentioned by a number of crew have been completely mental but always fun to discuss when we wake up – my latest being that we will be staying in a Downton Abbey kind of building when we hit the Azores.

I also finally understand the concept of knowing when you’ve been a sea a little too long and conversations go completely off the wall – as of today we have now all named our safety lines! Leo has nicknamed mine Honey! Just So crew you will be pleased to hear that I have got a lot of helming practice in. On average around 3 hours a day – it is absolutely amazing and at times when we really have been humming at night with all the stars out, I really can’t stop smiling!

All I need in some Meat Loaf in my life and it would be complete!

Anyway I just wanted to send you all my love and I hope everything is ticking along well. I look forward to being in touch in the Azores (though I’m sure I’ll write another note soon!).
Alex xxx

Lesley, Tech Boys and Family

Lets suppose we call Challenger 2 a castle, then Chris is probably the oldest person to have had a bouncy castle for his birthday, he also has had happy birthday sung to him various ways all through the day…

I was on mother watch yesterday with Tony, and managed to attempt the first loaf of bread of the trip. It failed to rise ☹, but made some good solid dwarf fighting bread to go the with Tomato, Potato combo for lunch today. Spirits have improved with some sleep gained from the mother watch time, as I was definitely starting to feel jet lagged with the weird sleep cycles.

I also attempted to have a shower, and this is a bit of a luxury on board, so was looking forward to it after nearly a week of cold water splashes, so basically having a shower means you aim the shower head and try and get in the way of the water as is falls downhill. An interesting experience…

There is plenty of time to think without the constant distraction of the internet and other instant gratifications of entertainment, no such thing as a remote control to lose down the back of a sofa., although typing on a keyboard that is trying to slide away is slightly entertaining and doesn’t lend itself to good from on the touch typing front.

Budgie

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Posted by: First Class Sailing