Another way to see that we are making progress is when you write an entry in the trip log the latitude was always slightly less and it was on the 8th day of our trip that the figure hit 0 and strange things began to happen…

Around lunch time on said day we were ordered to furl away the sails and stop the engine… soon after issuing these orders Conor and Derek seemed to disappear leaving Coyote, Darragh and myself in the cockpit. Next thing you know Neptunes’ side kick appears out of nowhere; this guy is dress in a cowboy hat, has straw hair as black a night, a big knife and a very bad attitude. He orders us to the bow of the ship and who is there to meet us?? Neptune himself with his blue cloak and thick white beard and hair (that seemed to fall off every now and again), decorated with a crown and a trident of fire!! this guy wasn’t very nice either but he did keep his side kick from running us through!

Instead the three of us who hadn’t sailed over the equator before took it in turn to stand on the edge of the ship strapped in a harness connected to the spinnaker pole while the angry side kick read a list of sea faring sins we were guilty of from a scroll. For each sin we got a putrid concoction of days old, festering in the sun left overs thrown at us usually in the face! This stuff was vile! I cannot begin to describe the gag inducing smell. But once the last sin was read and the last handful of evil thrown we were ordered into the sea where we were dunked and made our sacrifice to the ever merciful Neptune!

Neptunes mercy only goes so far as Darragh found out. With his mouth gaping wide open as he passed the harness back to the henchman Neptune appeared out of nowhere and emptied some of the vileness on to Darragh and I am afraid to report it went in his mouth and up his nose inducing quite and array of primeval sounds and expressions. The ceremony also saw Coyote get a short full of cocktail and he made a bunch of wild noises of his own.

…and with that Neptune and evil henchman were gone, leaving only a smelly deck to wash, three smelly newly initiated crew members and a beard on the deck!

Now all we can hope is that Neptune smiles down on us with mercy and grace as our fuel runs low, the wind stay light and Coyote keeps setting fire to his cooking.

2041 Crew

We have been in the open sea since Monday afternoon. Thanks to the force 5 (that’s what it says in the log; I am sure it was more) we made it out of the Straits of Hormuz in less than 24 hours. The sea on the first night was really big; I had to go to the bow to sort out the chute for the chain locker and about four waves crashed over me. Then on the helm we all took a wave or five while trying to control the heavy beast! It was hard steering but excellent fun and a great work out.

Since reaching the Straits of Hormuz the wind has died off and we have spent most of our time motor sailing with the wind behind us. This is much easier than the first nights beam reach sprint but not quite as exciting…. however we have all been able to sleep well and it is a lot easier to cook.

At the moment it is the fifth night on our voyage to Salalah and we have covered 685 miles taking us across the Gulf of Oman, past Muscat, round the head land of Ras Al Hadd into the Arabian sea and past Masirah Island where we are currently in the Gulf of Masirah. While not on watch it is a great opportunity to catch up on sleep, read up on biodiesel (did you know the diesel engine was originally designed to run on bio fuel??) or hone your angry birds skills! Unless you are on mother watch of course; then you get to cook and clean up after the guys.

While passing through the straits we were surrounded by the islands and mountains of Oman but since then it has pretty much been blue sky’s and blue sea. Although we have seen a few dolphins, tons of flying fish (three of which landed on our deck one night), caught a barracuda (that Conor insisted wasn’t edible due to ciguatera… shame i clumped him on the head first) and every night has been clear, starry and full mooned.

So far so good…

Adam

Our Journey was pretty much broken up into just over 1000 mile stints, bar the first and our last pirate infested leg of 2500 miles. We sailed a short hop from Cardiff to Plymouth in England, then Plymouth to Gibraltar, Gibraltar to Malta, Malta to Suez, Suez to Djibouti, and finally Djibouti to Dubai. The huge culture difference is represented by the miles, as we departed from a Christian western culture, and slowly diluted it, until we passed the heart of Islam, being Mecca in Saudi Arabia, just in from the coast of the Red Sea, and found ourselves deep in Eastern Muslim Culture, although, our final destination Dubai, might be considered a western influenced Emirate. And now, brave “2041” sits in the heart of the oil producing world, proudly announcing her message of “the Voyage for Cleaner Energy”. She is poised for the next leg, the “Far east” and the fastest growing economies in the world. Where we hope, to help and educate the people with regard to the mistakes we have made in the west, where energy and power consumption rose rapidly with intensive industry growth, with little or no regard to the environment.  It would be great to see these future super powers not having to back pedal, like we find ourselves doing.

There is hope, and as the bizarre mammal’s we are, we find ourselves deciding the future for all life on our planet. In amongst all this gloom and negativity of our destructive nature, there are positives, we thrive on hope, and the need to have a better life. We will learn, that this does not necessarily mean financially, but environmentally. We all need to globally unite and focus our energy on the job we have been given, to make this planet a safe, sustainable environment, and ultimately a better place to live. We have been given the key to be the protectors of our planet, entrusted with the survival of all living things, and we need to step up to this challenge and cannot shy away from this responsibility.

All on board feel that this journey on “2041”, being sustainable on our small environment on the yacht, can set an example of how, when the journey seems long and difficult, that with human spirit and hope, we can overcome our “bad habits” and step up to our jobs as protectors, and make individual decisions that can make an impact, and globally, if we unite with our individual decisions to reduce, recycle and reuse, we will make a difference.

The Captain

Jake

Customs and immigration proved to be a little challenging but after 12 long hours, crew and yacht were allowed to proceed to their new home for the period.

They arrived just before 9pm. Thank you to our sponsor and Dubai International Marine Club for making this stay possible.

Four very well traveled, tired and dusty crew but still smiling, waved and called as they arrived and threw the lines.  Full of tales to tell. And oh what colourful tales they are.

A well deserved weekend for our steadfast crew came at just the right time. Thank you for delivering our Lady safely.  Tomorrow sees some very welcome TCL for ‘2041’, she’s just completed a little over 6000nm in just over 2 months.

Thank you ‘2041’ for bringing our Boys over safely.

The Louis Vuitton Trophy started with the ceremony opening on the 12 Nov. The 13th saw the trial race and the 14th the start of the official racing which runs through to the 27th November.  It started with a bang with the Emirates, Team New Zealand tacking and cutting in front of the Mascalzone Latino, Italian team, NZL92 speared their spinnaker pole through Mascalzone Latino starboard hull leaving a big hole.  The excitement continues tomorrow!

Dear readers and supporters, thank you for all your well wishes and support. And also, a large thank you to our crew, Conor, Jake, Derek, and Tishu for making this landmark journey possible.

Best Laura

Saturday morning on the boat and at this stage we have been at sea for five into our sixth day. We are now out of the Gulf of Aden and into the Arabian Sea, a first for most of us on board. At the moment the wind is light enough blowing a quiet 6knts, progress is a bit slow but light winds bring a calm sea. Looking out across the water and a gentle swell there is nothing else to be seen except pockets of ripples  interspersed with patches of smooth rolling sea.

We took advantage of these conditions this morning to do a maintenance job our the furling mechanism on the head sail. A problem arose when the leech line on the sail snapped and the sail start to flap around. This motion caused the upper part of the furler to unscrew itself, sheer the treads and render the device useless. We hove to the yacht and I climbed the mast to have a closer look to see if anything could be done to rectify the problem. Unfortunately we will have to manage without it for the remainder of the trip. That is to not say that we have lost the use of the head sail itself, we will resort to using it as a hanked on sail. It will mean a little bit of fore-deck work for us(something I got quite accustomed to during the Clipper race) as the sail comes into and out of play as the wind dictates. We will raise and lower the sail rather than furl it around the fore-stay.

While I was up the mast Conor manned the safety lines, Jake did what ever he does in the engine room and Tish got busy in the galley, omelette’s for lunch, again, surprise surprise.

A quiet Saturday night lies ahead for the crew of ’41, a movie night maybe, but no pubs clubs or discos. Then again the wind may have other ideas and the night may not be so quiet after all.

Where ever you are, what ever you’re doing, have a good weekend.

Derek

Our ship danced like a moth in the firelight

White horses rode high as the devil passed by

Taking souls to the Hades by the twilight [Christy Moore]

Well not quite taking souls but breaking hearts, yes, the Red Sea. 1200 nautical miles in searing heat and furnace hot winds the end seemed so tantalizingly close, we were almost there. You could touch, almost feel the freedom but the Red Sea has us in her grasp and was not letting us go too easily. The wind we had long been seeking had at last arrived but a cruel twist of fate saw it blow hard on the nose.

If we were going to have an escape we were going to have to fight for it. Through the Straits of Babel Mandeb we tacked endlessly back and forth gaining mile by precious mile. With the change in the weather for the worst we have also a change to our next destination. We are running for cover to Djibouti. The winds and currents seemed to have us in a stale mate and every time we checked the charts it was 60nm to go. Back on watch a couple of hours later and guess what? 60nm to go.

At 2030hrs we are free and running, and running well, with less than 40nm to go and a well earned rest and hopefully a shower. After a very saline environment for a week or so, everything including the crew are well and truly encrusted in salt. Just shake the head over the dinner plate in the evening and the most natural sea salt you can get.

We didn’t get to see most of the coast lines running down the from Suez but as the sea narrows into and through the straits, what spectacular sights beheld us. The Abu Ali Islands, the Hanish Islands, the Haycocks and many more volcanic islands jut out of one of the top five seas in the world to scuba dive in. The whole sea is teeming with life, world renowned for it’s coral reefs, like reefs world wide they are the nursery grounds for the worlds oceans. A degree or two change in temperature of the waters around the reefs and we as a whole loose one of the most beautiful and fascinating eco-systems that support us.

With this fact, the terms energy reduction and climate temperature balance have real meaning. Reminding ourselves to Reduce Re-use Recycle, will see each and everyone of us do our part, however small to play a role in saving these vital environments.

Derek

It’s HOT. In fact, excuse the language, it’s stinking HOT. We dread the sun rising in the morning and long to see it slip down behind the horizon each evening. Yet you can hardly say the nights are cool, they just not quite as hot as the days. The dress code for the night watches are just the same as the days, a pair of shorts and the shorter the better. Mind you, you can actually walk the decks at night in your bare feet. Try it during the day and ‘fried soles’ are on the menu.

Talking of which, mother watch is hellish in the galley. But when you have two successive  evening meals consisting of a ‘dynamite hot’ Chili Con Carne and then a curry, however mild, one must really start looking for ones’ marbles. Myself, I’m  putting it down to sun stroke.

The days are starting to roll into one another now. Never quite sure what day of the week it actually is, and sometimes there is not a lot to differentiate one from the other. The difference today, actually this evening, just as we were about to dig into our evening meal, is that our fishing line went twang. Always source of amusement on board, a bit of a scramble to see how big it is and how we are going to land it. No dilemmas this evening,a small Barracuda, just swing it over the rail on the end of the line. Once on deck we looked at it and thought best to put it back as it was a bit on the small side. Another day my friend.

Enjoy the cold you lucky people, oh you lucky lucky people,the crew of 2041 have only another 700nms going south before we ever so slowly start to head north again. I’m off to my bunk for a couple of hours before the 2100hrs watch and cooler three hours on deck.

Take care for now Derek’