Be The Jam

Position: Indian Ocean

S 11°08.00'

E 077°38.79'

So the decision has been made. We are going for long haul, serious, no stopping, and manic, exhausting crossing. We are now heading for the Seychelles . We have still not got an engine and we had a very heavy night of storms and squalls. So the general feeling is not to go to Chegos Archipelago, for one the Navy Base (British) won't really help us and two the prospect of approaching a set of islands surrounded by coral heads and reefs that aren't properly charted without an engine; well let’s just leave it at that. So as I was explaining earlier we were all set for a couple of days rest on Solomon Island (Nice lagoon with white beach, and coconut trees, lots of fish, excellent snorkelling, and no people, completely uninhabited, really pissed off), but no we have opted for an extra 10 days to two weeks at sea to reach the safety of a good port in the Seychelles. We are all gutted to say the least. This is a one chance in a life time opportunity passing up here. Chegos or Diego Garcia is smack bang in the middle of the Indian Ocean , miles from man and our polluting ways (OK there is a fuck off base there, but..), as far a pollution is concerned and fishing there is very little that has affected this area at all since the beginning of time. It would have been an awe inspiring feeling diving in these waters, waters that have no fear of MAN; natural. I don’t want to think about it anymore, I’m not sure my brain will cope with the fact that we will be stuck on this boat for another 2 weeks!!

I have to think positive; carrying on will mean we will catch up on a couple of days on our schedule, meaning plenty of time for repairs in the Seychelles .

I'm still knackered from last night, the storms had the boat at one point completely on its side, we had to get the Genoa down ASAP, it was raining, it was dark, and there were monster waves crashing down on us. We then spent the rest of the night with just the main sail up, which equals a very uncomfortable ride indeed, since we have no other Genoa's that are serviceable at the moment. Just feels shit. I feel shit, and we are in for another night of shit!! In fact at this rate we are in for 2 weeks of shit!

Position: Indian Ocean

S 11°10.22'

E 080°30.12'

We have had a bad day; spent the morning repairing sails and the afternoon repairing the engine. The sails have all got problems. Since we have had our first serious wind; these things have been made apparent. Before we set sail all the sails were taken out and looked at, checked and double checked. The best ones were selected and the rest left behind. So far all three Genoa 's (front sail) have got problems. The Jib or small battened sail has got salt water damage (The eyes are gone and are being ripped out at the forestay), the main Genoa has got salt water damage as well, the Mylar is rotten and two panels are coming away, so need replacing, and the back up Genoa (A very old one as a spare in case of an emergency), looked good but it turns out is completely rotten. So we fixed the Mylar holes as best we could this morning and replaced the back up Genoa (This by now had two foot rip in it at the base). The long and short is that all our Genoa 's or Jibs are Fucked! Putting no finer point on it!! The Genoa is a very important sail, to have only one temporally repaired; that is in use, is a bit scary really. The problems don't stop there. Next we have the engine which decided not to start today. On inspection it looks like the injector is up the spout. Fuel seems to be entering it but not coming out. No engine means no power, means no lights, means miserable time navigating, means no instruments (GPS etc). It's not all that bad because one thing we are not short of on this boat is GPS's. We have two hand held ones which run on AA battery's, otherwise it really would have been compass and the stars to guide us!!!

Our plan was to head for Solomon Island and have a couple of days rest. With no engine this is impossible because the entrance to the lagoon is small and without the engine to get us in we are stuffed!! So our dilemma is this:

1. Do we head for the Naval Base on Diego Garcia, which strongly rejects any kind of visitors unless it is a medical emergency?

or

2. Head straight for Seychelles , which would mean another two weeks, at least, at sea. Considering the state we are all in from the past couple of days, it sounds like; an impossibility.

Well tomorrow will be decision time as we will have one final look at the engine and decide whether it is possible to repair it at sea or not?

The good news is that we have done over 320 nautical miles in the last two days!! That puts our average speed at 6.7 knots per hour! That is about 8 mph. Which; in the swells we nave been having and the fact we have been manning the wheel 24 ills per day, is going some.

So from tired shoulders to knackered feet its Toby signing off

Position: Indian Ocean .

S 10°49.92'

E 083°13.85'

Well the wind is still with us. It's great that the wind is still here but there are consequences that go with that, namely a heavy swell. The Indian has been flat thus far, but now it is beginning to show us what it can do. I'm just glad we're not going into it. The swell is on our stern. So effectively we are on a course of 300 degrees and the wind is a South easterly, right up our arse! We are surfing along the waves most of the time, building up our speed to 10 knots at times; we are quite literally flying. I was at the wheel earlier today and a bloody great wave came roaring down on us from behind, next thing I know, most of it is in the cockpit with me up round my knees!!! You have to be on your guard all the time, if we took a wave like that on our Port or Starboard side we would be in trouble. It's all great fun and a hell of a lot better than sitting around listening to the sails flap at nothing. Sitting here writing now it all sounds a bit dramatic, but it's all part of life on board, I don't know whether you get numb to things happening or whether it's just you get so many thrills everyday you just get used to it?? Anyway the autopilot doesn't work in this sort of weather so we are manning the wheel 24 hrs per day between the 3 of us at the moment, we are all knackered.

On a lighter note we got another fish today! It was a blue fin tuna or bonito. Excellent!! It being a Friday night we have invited lots of people round for dinner, we have put the tuna in the oven wrapped in foil with lemon, pepper, garlic and oil. If no one turns up we'll have a lot of fish to eat! (Fat chance!! All the more for us!!)

Well here's looking forward to a delicious dinner and constant wind!!!

Position: Indian Ocean

S 10°32.94'

E 086°31.08'

Haven't done any entries for a couple of days, the reason being; boredom. We have had very little wind to speak off. Finally last night it seems the long awaited South easterly all the books talk about, kicked in. Since about 1700 hrs on Wednesday 13/06/01 we have had a steady 20 knot wind. As I speak now I am wedged in the galley with everything at 45 degrees to me. The boat is travelling at record speeds of 8-10 knots. We have all the sails we can get up 'up' and we are flying with the wind. It's a dream come true. We have all been debating as to what we should do, which way we should head to find wind; 'Should we go further South?' or 'We should stay on the same heading the wind will come eventually' Then with a little puff and a little huff, the wind was there. Now the question is how long will it stay with us? If it stays with us for the next few days we will make good our time in Chegos. We were beginning to think that it was going to take us another ten days at the rate we were travelling; this would have put a strain on our supplies to reach Seychelles , as there is nothing in Chegos but this Military Base. The base is English but is of limits, so we will be stopping on Solomon Island which is part of the Archipelago Islands , but as I said before they are all uninhabited. It will take us another weeks' sailing to get to Seychelles .

On another track; we saw a small pod of dolphins this morning. They followed us, and played in the bow wave. They normally come at night, but these seemed more playful. It was great to see them up and close, good video footage taken by Rupert.

Position: Indian Ocean

S 09°07.43'

E 092°39.80'

Ha! We had our first freshly baked bread today! I baked bread for the first time in my life and it came out as though it had popped out of the bakery just down the road. Having cleaned the jets on the oven last night, it meant we could get the oven up to temperature. We had sandwiches for early lunch, and then Rupert proceeded to catch two fish, so we had those on the barbecue with toast (pan and Oli - Olive oil with garlic rubbed into it). The fish came from under the boat, they had been following us for a while, and we noticed them this morning. It appeared they would go for just about anything, including a rope (Sheet) that fell over the side at one stage. So Rupert dropped a lure over the edge of the boat, and bang caught one, then dropped it over the side again, bang! Another one. All in two minutes. Easiest fishing ever. Tasty fish. Don't know what they were called.