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February 1, 1999, South Atlantic Passage, Day 8 Conditions: Winds dropped off again this morning to under 10 knots true. Maintained very light winds all day into early evening. Seas very calm. Skies clear and hot! Highlights: With winds as light as they are, neither the mainsail nor the headsail are able to stay full and as a result, the boat has a hard time keeping course. Combine that with the wind moving a bit East and we had a frustrating situation. With the wind on our quarter, it made it difficult to reach or go wing on wing. Solution, throw up the spinnaker... actually, the gennaker. Instead of using a pole, we simply tack it down to the bow and let her fly. It allows the boat to go a good deal deeper without going directly downhill. And, in extremely light air we can actually make reasonably good speed. In 10 knots of true wind we are making 6.5-7.5 kts through the water. All in, it was a great day of sailing! Bob Greymont aboard Gypsy Spray:
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February 2, 1999, South Atlantic Passage, Day 9 Conditions: Again today, winds dropped off this morning as the sun rose. Light winds persisted most of the day into early evening. Seas remain calm with clear and sunny skies. Highlights: Sometimes with day after day of nothing exciting happening, it's difficult to come up with enough to say.
But still I try. Bob Greymont aboard Gypsy Spray:
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February 3, 1999, South Atlantic Passage, Day 10 Conditions: For the third day in a row, the winds dropped off in the morning when the sun rose. With less than 10 kts of true wind, there was only 2-4 kts of apparent wind. Seas continuing to flatten. Skies clear and sunny. Highlights: Well, there is literally nothing of any consequence to report from OOB for today. We've had hardly enough wind to fill our spinnaker for most of the day and it doesn't seem to be getting any better going into this evening. It's not easy watching the ETA climb as the boat speed continues to fall off, and it's certainly not encouraging when you're looking at under 200 miles to go. The good news is that baring anything catastrophic, we will still arrive tomorrow! Bob Greymont aboard Gypsy Spray:
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February 4, 1999, Jamestown, Saint Helena Conditions: Who cares, were here! Highlights: It took us just over 10 days, but we made it! As we approached the island, we could see it's volcanic peaks from over 35 miles away. The wind seemed to die about 20 miles from the north end, forcing us to pull down our spinnaker and motor the rest of the way. As we passed close by the barren, rocky landscape, we were again reminded of the incredible feeling of seeing land after a long ocean passage. We may have just traveled 1700 miles, but we are only 1/3 the way across the Atlantic. Everyone is looking forward to putting the rest under our belts, but there is a lot to be seen in between. In the mean time, after a celebratory drink, Suzie has prepared a leg of lamb for dinner. Then tomorrow we have arranged for a tour of the island with some of the other boats that have just arrived. As I write this, we are all exhausted and ready for bed, so until the next update... Bob Greymont aboard Gypsy Spray: |
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Feb. 8, 1999, St, Helena to Fernando de Noronha, Day 1 Conditions: Strong winds out of the East at 20-25 kts. Seas flat calm and clear skies. Highlights: Well, we're on our way again! After a brief respite of 4 days we're well rested and ready for the next leg
of the crossing. St. Helena was a fascinating Having done some minor provisioning of fresh fruits and veggies we weighed anchor and made way in a fresh easterly wind. No sooner did we have our course set and the sails trimmed, did the wind choke. So we hoisted the spinnaker, brought the main down to the second reef and we were moving again. After another hour we lost the wind all together. With no other option we started to motor and made 1800 rpms, giving us 5-5.5 kts of speed. Not a great start, but there's always tomorrow. Bob Greymont aboard Gypsy Spray: |
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Feb. 9, 1999, St. Helena to Fernando de Noronha, Day 2 Conditions: Very light winds out of the East at 6-8 kts. Seas flat calm and clear skies. Highlights: With the conditions we're experiencing here you'd think we were in the doldrums crossing the Equator. 120 mile days will kill our ETA for Brazil, but that is part of sailing. At least we have enough wind to keep our spinnaker full with light sheets. We had the main up to the second reef for a while, but that ended up working against so we pulled it down all together. Still we have only been averaging 5 kts. With the wind practically still around us the days are starting to get hotter. Normally the only relief from the heat would be a fresh water deck shower or a bucket of salt water over the head. Today we figured we'd try something a little different. We rigged the bosuns chair to a line and then through a block at the end of the boom. We then swung the boom out to starboard with a willing participant attached and proceeded to dunk said person. Needless to say everyone had a blast, not to mention a swim. Bob Greymont aboard Gypsy Spray: |
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Feb. 10, 1999, St. Helena to Fernando de Noronha, Day 3 Conditions: Winds continue to be extremely light @ 8-10 kts. Seas still fairly flat and cloudless skies. Highlights: We're now 14 degrees south and have yet to experience the true trade winds normally found north of 20 south. Consequently, we are making our way forward at an average of 5 kts SOG. At 120 miles per day it will now take us about 14 days to reach Brazil. Our weather faxes are showing us that we're stuck in the middle of a large south Atlantic high pressure system. Not much we can do about that. But the days pass easily and the weather is near perfect. We’re all catching up on a lot of reading and long naps. At this point, all we can do is wait and see if this high moves off and we get some wind filling in from the SE. The only thing that would make this perfect would be to hear the fishing line run out and then reel in a big tuna... Bob Greymont aboard Gypsy Spray: |
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Feb. 11, 1999, St. Helena to Fernando de Noronha, Day 4 Conditions: Brief periods of freshening wind in between predominately light winds. Seas and skies calm and clear. Highlights: This is certainly shaping up to be on of the more peaceful passages we've had. The conditions are light but very pleasant and there's definitely been no lack of jumping around on deck. We've had no major sail changes, but quite a bit of spinnaker work over the last two days. Subtle shifts in wind direction and speed have the spinnaker going up and down constantly. When the wind is directly behind us, we have it out on a pole. When the wind moves off our starboard quarter, we tack it down to the bow. Then, when it moves behind us again and starts to fold, down it comes. With anything under 8 kts we have to use the lightweight sheets. Then, as the wind increases again, it's back to the heavier sheets. It all keeps us busy, especially because it usually happens at sunrise, sunset or in the middle of the night. Bob Greymont aboard Gypsy Spray: |
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Feb. 12, 1999, St. Helena to Fernando de Noronha, Day 5 Conditions: Wind steady at 15-20 knots SE. Wave height has increased slightly to 1.5 meters. After overcast skies this morning, they are now clear. Highlights: Early this morning the wind finally decided to pick up to between 15-20 kts on our port quarter. Since it was gusting up to about 24 kts, we didn't want to risk keeping the spinnaker up, so down it came. Up with the main and throw the jenny out on the pole. It's a great rig, but we really need 20+ kts to make any real speed. At this point, we're still 1200 miles out of Fernando de Noronha, so we'll take anything we can get. Bob Greymont aboard Gypsy Spray: |
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Feb. 13, 1999, St. Helena to Fernando de Noronha, Day 6 Conditions: Wind out of the SE at 15-20 kts. Waves 1-1.5 meters. Overcast again this morning and clearing in the afternoon. Highlights: Reporting the goings on day in and day out tends to become a little boring, so I'm going to try and mix it up a little. Tonight I just wrote the first thing that came to mind. Let us know what you think. Life on passage. What can I say? The incredible thing about it is that it's never the same. Every day seems to have a life of it's own. It's usually dictated by all kinds of things. The conditions, people's moods, proximity to land and a host of other variables. It's like a living organism, it reacts to everything that happens around it. It effects you in ways you cannot imagine. It allows you the time to do things that you never seem to have the time for in everyday life. It gives you the time to think and reflect, and it's a better form of therapy than anything that I can think of. Bob Greymont aboard Gypsy Spray: |
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Feb. 14, 1999, St. Helena to Fernando de Noronha, Day 7 Conditions: Wind out of the SE at 15-20 kts. Waves 1.5-2 meters. Bright and clear skies. Highlights: If you read yesterdays update then you know that I mentioned the tendency for every day to be different from the next. Well, I never imagined how true that statement really was until this morning. It all started early this morning on Bill's watch when, while charging the batteries and the fridge, the alternator decided to stop working. Being that it was the middle of the night, he left it until this morning, upon which time we gave it a thorough looking over. After checking and rechecking the alternator, the regulator, and all the wiring, we determined that the diodes had fried and it was in all probability not going to work again. What does this mean? Well, in short, we have no power to run anything on the boat. No lights, no instruments and no Autohelm! Suddenly, we are faced with the reality that we are going to have to hand steer the remaining 900 miles to Fernando de Noronha. Add to that the fact that we have no electrics. Basically, all we have is the charge that was left in our service batteries and that’s all folks... Twenty-four point five volts is going to have to last us six days. We then went about the task of shutting off everything, including the Autohelm and the GPS. Thankfully we do still have our engine, as it runs off a separate 12 volt bank of batteries. Off that system we have wired in a Magellan handheld GPS and a small fluorescent light. Aside from that we still have the ability to charge our fridge and make water if we have to. We've even had to bypass the gas shut off switch in order to use our stove/oven. To make a bad day worse, as we were all discussing our fate, we heard an enormous ripping sound. We all rushed to the deck, only to watch in horror as our spinnaker was shredded in front of our eyes. It seems a 30 knot gust was a little too much for it to handle. Luckily, we were able to get it on board before it went under the boat. That was about all the excitement we could handle for one day. Unfortunately, this will be our last update until we arrive in Fernando de Noronha, so check in with us at the end of the week. Bob Greymont aboard Gypsy Spray: |
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February 22, 1999, Fernando de Noronha, Brazil A special thanks to Mike at Jamestown Boat Yard in Rhode Island for his help in the great alternator debacle. Luckily, Bill and Alex were able to rebuild the alternator once they reached Fernando de Noronha at a little electric shop. February 17, 1999 ALTERNATOR, ALTERNATOR, ALTERNATOR!!!! February 15, 1999 We will not be able to send daily updates unless we are communicating for reasons to do with the alternator at which time we will certainly transmit position, speed, etc. It really drains the batteries. Anyway, all is well and look forward to arriving at Fernando We Needabrewha. (so dubbed) Position- Lat S. 08.50.41 Lon W. 021.57.49 |
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February 25, 1999, Caribbean Passage, Day 1 Conditions: Not a whole lot of wind and very calm seas. A very sunny day. Highlights: Well... this is it... the final leg to close the circle. YAHOO!! We departed San Antonio Bay this morning at 09:00 and headed out for the last long passage of our circumnavigation. It will be just under 1900 NM and we expect it to take 10-12 days to reach Barbados. We will be crossing the equator in the next few days and expect the winds to be extremely light due to the doldrums. With any luck we'll have some wind to push us through, although it's not looking good at the moment. We're all always a bit tired the first day of passage, settling in and such, so I'll keep this short and save the good stuff for later. Bob Greymont aboard Gypsy Spray: |
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February 27, 1999, Caribbean Passage, Day 3 Conditions: Winds slowly picking up out of the east to NE. Skies clearing and seas picking up. Highlights: After raining most of the day under light wind conditions, the clouds began to dissipate and the breeze started to pick up. We are presently flying along on a beam reach at 8-9 kts. If it actually holds for the next 24-36 hrs then we'll have cleared the area along the equator where the doldrums are most often found. After that, it should be smooth sailing all the way to Barbados! As we are nearly at the equator, there is an old maritime custom still in practice today. When a ship crosses the equator, all persons not having done so before are subject to participate in certain rituals. This ceremony is performed by the ancient God of the sea, King Neptune, as an initiation or rite of passage. Out of Bounds will be no exception to this old custom. When King Neptune (Bill) makes his appearance as we cross the equator, the humble crew will accept his orders and do as he commands. Only then will they be worthy of passing into the Northern Hemisphere. Bob Greymont aboard Gypsy Spray: |
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February 28, 1999, Caribbean Passage, Day 4 Conditions: Winds picked up in the middle of the night to 20-25 kts NE. Seas 2-3 meters and very confused. Skies overcast with periodic sunshine. Highlights: Although it's a little bumpy at the moment, these are the winds we've been wishing for. It'll take a day or so for both the seas and the swell to settle into a pattern but they are definitely the trade winds and we'll take’em! As for the ceremony conducted by King Neptune (played by Bill) as we crossed the Equator, it went off without a hitch. Here is what he said as we left the Southern Hemisphere and entered the Northern Hemisphere for the first time since April 1997. King Neptune's Toast at 00.00.00 Degrees Latitude Along we shall go As we travel the earth We have crossed the equator And with that, we lifted our beers and toasted to crossing the Equator. We thanked Out of Bounds for carrying us across and King Neptune for looking after us. It was definitely a special occasion, as we NEVER drink on passage. But, it's not every day you cross the equator on a boat. As for the traditional hazing, egg in your hair is supposed to be good for it, right? Bob Greymont aboard Gypsy Spray: |
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stop but the island is so
small that it can be seen in it's entirety in one day. At left is Jacob’s Ladder. 699 steps of pure torture... but worth the view from the top. Keep your eyes out for a few words on our stay on one of the most
remote islands in the world where Napolean was exhiled.
