The Long and the Short of Starting an Atlantic Voyage

As she sails from Antigua to Portsmouth the latest report from Challenger 2 brought the usual daily update from the skipper Neil, plus a long and thoughtful piece from Alex who managed to find some time between watches to put his thoughts down about taking on a long voyage across the Atlantic.

The Pot Holding the Rudder Back

Morning all! We’ve had a good second day out at sea all crew are now up and about and seem to have got over there sea sickness, we are sailing well at 7 – 9 knots mainly NNE.

Latest weather suggests that there is a very large light / no wind area ahead it is unfortunately unavoidable so we will spend some time motoring towards our destination before hopefully picking up the westerly to finish off.

A couple of bits missed off yesterday , when we were aprox 2 hours out of jolly harbour we caught some fishing gear/ pot that became stuck around our rudder, luckily Steve and Nick managed to lift the offending line using the gaff and cut us free a lucky escape and not what you expect to find in over 150m of water.

The sun is still shining, flying fish are still flying, squalls are still squalling and the crew are still having fun J

Regards
Neil, Skipper, Challenger 2

A Crew’s Thoughts at the Start of an Atlantic Voyage

Just over 24 hours in and we’ve already cracked off 215nm. The sun is out, the Atlantic is a deep blue, the swell has finally started to settle into more gentle rollers. We’re ticking along at around 7.5 knots heading north to avoid the light patch out East on a close reach. Life is good!

The two days prior to leaving were packed with preparation for the trip from MOB drills to menu planning and stowing everything away. A few rum & tings in the evenings also made it into the mix. Tony has been introduced into a whole new world. Rum – and has decided that opening up a rum bar in Belfast could be a great way to take on the Buckfast competition! A few name suggestions ‘Go Rum Away’ and ‘Rum and fun’

Before leaving yesterday morning, Leo, Tony, Ben and Alex took to the sea for a final Caribbean bathe. None of us were keen on getting out though the experience was improved when a beach boy offered us a coconut water and rum at 8am as a good morning wakener. We were tempted but declined the offer!

After a slightly lengthy process, Neil our skipper managed to wade through the customs process and we were eventually released to go! It was rather sad saying goodbye to land though Antigua did it in style and dumped a monumental tropical rainstorm on us within 15 minutes of leaving. When the wind is warm you dry out pretty quickly though.

We all stayed on deck for the first few hours enjoying the Antigua vista and the first few sightings of flying fish. We’ve been split into two watch systems. They’ve been called a number of things but for now we shall call them: Swallows & Amazons.

Swallows – Leo (Watch Leader), Alex, Chris & Chris, Howard & Ben
Amazons – Steve (Watch Leader), Chloe, Ivan, Nigel, Tony, Ian & Martin

Our Skipper is Neil and First Mate Nick. All in all, a motley crew to say the least, varying in ages and characters.

As the sun set, Swallows took the first watch. The stars came out in force and we were on a beam reach averaging around 11-12knots with one reef in the mainsail. Proper champagne sailing. It’s bizarre though not one satellite has been spotted yet though we have been inundated with some spectacular shooting stars. The phosphoressence also came out to play. Now where were the dolphins!

Off our starboard side, we started to say a dull light on the horizon. After all that Barbuda went through with Hurricane Irma, it was so fantastic to see signs of life again. Speaking to the Antiguans, they were all so upset by what had happened to their sister island.

Reaching the Deep Blue

Not long after we dropped off the edge of the 50 metre depth ridge into the deeper seas and started to leave the choppy swell behind. It still isn’t fully settled but a lot better.
At around 5am this morning, we experienced our first squall with 30-35 knots flying across the deck. It was wet, it was bumpy but only lasted 15 minutes before we were back in a more relaxed mode again. When the sea and air is warm though, it’s amazing how much more bearable it is.

You dry off within ten minutes and we’re still in shorts and t-shirt sailing at night.

The morning brought on some beating as the wind shifted and if we didn’t change course we would have been going to say hi to the BVI (not that that would have been a bad thing!).
Chloe spotted our first dolphin (I was starting to think they were all at dolphy college – according to a 5 yr old family friend this is explains where dolphins are when you don’t see them sailing) and we had our first aerial visitor, a gannet weaving in and out of our slipstream.

What a welcome sight! He was a fine looking chap, smaller than the British gannets but with the same characteristics.

A wave came over Tony, Steve, Ivan and Alex’s heads when bringing down the stay sail much to Neil’s amusement – apparently we needed a shower anyway!
As we head into our second night, we are starting to finally find a rhythm and a way of living out here (as well as locating those much needed sea legs). Leo has been trying to work out how many calories you burn when at sea. Mixed views here.

Apparently lying down does not count as self righting yourself!

Nick has marked on the chart where we are, we’ve done just under 10% of our crossing to the Azores in our first day yet what we’ve covered looks so insignificant. As Chris said, we would already be half way across the Bay of Biscay by now with the distance covered.

Alex, Challenger 2

A note to the Just So Crew (from Alex) – missing the crème brulees on the rail!

Join the Next Adventure

If you would like to have your own adventure the full details about the voyage from Antigua to Portsmouth are here.

Or you can telephone the crew in the office for more information on 0203 006 3717 or use the call back from below.

Posted by: First Class Sailing