Below are the daily posts published while en-route to Martinique. They appeared as updates on the Predict Wind, satellite tracking programme.
They’ve been split into 1 week segments and we’re produced by different crew members each day:
Oh what a night! – Wed Jan 04 2023
‘‘Twas early January in ‘23 … what a very special time for (us) 3 … sing along now …. Oh what a feeling, what a night!!
We had our final walk around and picked up some last minute bits before slipping the lines and heading up to get fuel. We should have had an indication of what lay in store for us as we headed into wind and waves. After a less eye watering fuel stop than Lagos, Simon & Trev put the wind vane rudder on and we headed out.
There was hot, there was cold, there were looking out at the horizon and about 30 minutes after leaving the fuel station & getting the sails up we all decided to start on the sea sickness tablets. Team Elice put the starboard pole out and as a reward we were greeted with a pod of sunset dolphins. We’ve all managed to eat a bit and everyone had organized our shift pattern for the next few weeks.
Around 10PM there arose such a clatter, the Captain’s busying himself again I thought. When I came up later on it transpired that the wind had got up and throughout the night there were several gusts topping 48/49 knots!! With really rolly seas, no one has had a lot of sleep.
There’s no battle rattle happening in the boat just yet … I think we may have to start going through the rations! The high winds have meant that we have had incredible speeds and as of 9.00 AM we’ve done 91 nautical miles in 18 hours of sailing!
Crew morale is fair, with everyone feeling the effects of the 1st nights of passage fatigue. I’ve checked the emails & it’s lovely to receive messages this far out. Fun fact and 1 point in this journey we will be physically closer to the space station than any other piece of human habitation.
We’ll check in tomorrow,
Team Elice
The Big Boaty Sleep Off – Thu Jan 05 2023
Day 2 and the nervous chit chat had fallen by the wayside as contestants limbered up for the much anticipated dozing competition. First off the mark, the Captain with more of a late morning kip than a simple doze. The First mate waited till the afternoon before examining the back of her eyelids in full slumber mode.
This was all well and good, but Simon was playing the tactical game. He’d opted for the rapid doze technique rather than the extended dozing. Each time you’d look towards him, his eyes were closed but, within seconds/ minutes he’d spring back into life like a rabbit caught in the headlights of a car! His tactic proved effective and clocked up over 25 snoozes during the course of the day. He easily took the undisputed Big Boaty super dozer title.
For those who’ve experienced extended passages when sailing, you’ll appreciate that you become totally discombobulated for the first few days, as your body adjusts to the constant motion of the boat, so dozing, starring into the distance and looking vacant are pretty much the norm.
The sea state remained fairly boisterous for most of the day but did ease a little into the evening and by then we were all in need of some proper sleep.
We’d completed 148 nautical miles over the first 24 hours and continued to make good speed. The largest headsail together with the mizzen had taken us this far very effectively, so we decided to stick with this sail plan.
A large tanker overtook us in the afternoon and another sailing vessel came within a couple of miles before changing course. That was it. Nothing else to see or do here.
Captain Mac
To poo or not to poo! – Fri Jan 06 2023
It’s a bit like the postal strike at home I suppose, one minute it’s on its way and then nothing at all. In a plain a simple boating term…… torpedo tube 1, fully functional and firing at will, torpedo tube 2, slight malfunction and will not fire!
Life aboard ELICE tootles on, naps are getting less ( down to 23 per day rather than 25) and we all have a bit more energy, all thanks to Sarah’s delicious cooking.
Sea conditions remain good and we’re moving along nicely. Fishing line has been put out so we’re hoping for a nice bit of fish maybe for diner later.
Whilst composing this post I can confirm torpedo tube 2 now fully operational (no need for the prune juice), and boat has gained an extra knot in speed!
Yours relieved
Simon at Sea
And we will sail 500 miles .. and we will sail 500 more … – Sat Jan 07 2023
It’s another beautiful morning here on Elice, we’re rocketing along at 6 knots or more. The excitement of the day has been a dolphin feeding group and a bird. There’s been some debate over whether the bird was a robin or a kingfisher??
Last night the menfolk made dinner & have committed to doing laundry today – thank you to whoever trained them … you’ve done a marvelous job. If you’ve never had one of Simon’s salads … I encourage you to make all necessary arrangements as soon as possible – delicious
The fishing line is out again, no luck so far with it. So it’s standby shepherds pie for dinner … just in case we don’t get lucky with the line.
We’re around 300 miles from the Cape Verde islands and will start to make the turn westward over the next few days. Routines are being settled into and everyone seems to be sleeping better. Injuries incurred so far:
1 stubbed toe
1 heel cut
1 ankle vs winch
1 slightly sore shoulder
We start the bread making competition today, 1st up Nigella flatbreads … I might put the Master Chef theme tune on for added drama.
The ongoing debate (its been raging unsolved all morning) …
What would you rather fight & conquer a duck the size of a horse, or 10 horses the size of ducks?
Simon & Trev want to do away with the liferaft and use the duck … plus. a number of other options
I’m more keen on the horse option personally. It’s called horse power for a reason! Plus you can breed them (Simons counter point to this is the vets bills).
Let us know your thoughts on the back of a post card
Go West! – Sun Jan 08 2023
Gooooo Weeeest … where the sunshine is, Gooo West … let’s do the biz!!
We’ve finally made the turn westward – you might have to expand the map out but you can see where we turned. After a night of 3-4m waves and winds gusting in 40’s, everyone was a bit sleep deprived and need of a pick me up. So after a lazy morning of napping and charging up iPads & the satellite phone we made sandwiches with Simon’s buns.
Spotted in the Atlantic today: 2 birds – again shouts of Boobies all round, some flying fish and a yellow plastic watering can! It’s been so hectic we haven’t bothered with the fishing line today. Trev’s making a red Thai peanut curry for us tonight & we’ve hopefully sorted out the beds to be a bit more comfortable so we will all get a bit more sleep tonight.
We’ve had lots of emails today & it gives us all such a boost to hear from our friends. We tend to send messages when we’re on watch as it’s one of the few times we have total privacy, so it may take a day or so to hear back from us.
To make our turn we had to rig poles, take sails in, change over the mizzen sail (the small one on the back) and clamber all over the deck in 30 kts of wind and 3m swell. Everyone did brilliantly well & the boat is flying along. To celebrate Simon’s had a shower … we’d been dropping hints for a day or so & it’s nice to know they’ve worked. Clean clothes, heading in the right direction for a change and a clean (ish) crew … it really is the Lords day.
Simon wants everyone to know that he’s finished a book … one I’m informed has very few pictures in it.
Crash Bang Wallop – Mon Jan 09 2023
The best thing about being on a boat miles away from land is watching your fellow crew members constantly battle the movement of the boat! You would have thought by now we would all have the balance of karate kid and the grace of a gymnast. Absolutely not, we all stumble about, stubbing toes and banging knees like we’ve been in the boozer all day.
I find the journey from the bridge to my bedroom rather challenging even though it’s in a straight line. It’s more like a course from it’s a knock out, only the obstacles are hard and are going to hurt. I first have to navigate a set of steps down into the kitchen / galley, along a straight open passage then through an arch way into my cabin! Easy! Not quite , first there’s a 3 metre sea swell and the boats rocking left then right, so much your thought process can’t keep up ! The steps, the art of getting down the steps without looking like a retired lap dancer is to time the motion of the boat with the first step, get this right and it’s just a matter of thrashing your arms around until you catch something to grab on to, get this stage wrong and you will be sat at the base of the steps nursing a few knocks and laugher of your crew members in the back ground.
So you’ve negotiated the steps it’s on to the straight section through the kitchen / galley. This section is all about speed and hand grips , I tend to close my eyes and just go for it but it’s fair to say I’ve only had around 50% successes rate so I may have a bit more work to do on this section.
What normally catches me out is the swinging fruit hammock , especially at night when it’s pitch black , it comes out of nowhere and bang straight in the side of the head ! . What does the damage is a lemon with a large knobby bit on the end, there’s not a hour goes by when I long for the day I’m going to use that lemon in a recipe and give it some of its own medicine. Ok , you’ve fell down the steps, lost your grip and been smashed round the head by a lemon with a knobby bit on the end, surely there can’t be anymore punishment?, oh yes there’s two low level wooden strips a few feet apart just before you enter your cabin to stub your toes on !!! Well done you’ve made it !
Yours battered and bruised
Simonatsea
I Would Walk 500 Miles – Tue Jan 10 2023
And I would walk 500 more, or so I may claim! Truth is I’d sail 1000 nautical miles instead. Today at 12:00 hit our first milestone of 1000 NM, all completed under sail.
It’s still a bit choppy with the odd wave making us yaw off course before the auto helm screams as it tries to bring us back. We had used the wind vane initially, but the confused sea state meant that the rudder was only partially submerged and we kept veering off course. We’re hoping to go back to it once things calm a little.
Moving about onboard can only be achieved by adopting a crouching sumo stance and moving sideways in much the same way as a crab. I keep catching a view of Si scuttling about the boat either en route to or from his cabin. Best give him a wide berth and try and steer him away from sharp edges, as he does have a tendency of finding them. Oh, following on from his post yesterday, I can confirm that he took his vengeance on the lemon with a grudge yesterday evening, rapidly dispensing with the offending “knobbly bit” before slicing the rest up.
The last two nights has seen the aeronautical division of the aquatic suicide squad successfully complete their mission. Each morning we’ve found a Flying Fish corpse on deck and conducted a short service before committing their bodies back to the deep blue briney. They didn’t have it all there own way though. One flew into the side of the cockpit cover at around 1 am last night, aiming its attack on the first mate. It flapped around the deck dazed and I managed to get it overboard before she could take revenge, as that sort of end wouldn’t have led to fishy martyrdom.
Saw more boobies yesterday. Well, a red billed tropicbird. It flew around us a few times before deciding we were of no use to it and flocked off.
Tomorrow we’re hoping things will calm a bit and we’ll be able to put out the fishing line again, hopefully with a bit more success than before! We’ll keep you posted.
Captain Mac
I love rock n roll, put another dime in the juke box baby – Wed Jan 11 2023
And it’s a good bloody good job that we love rock n roll … that’s all we’ve had for the last 2 days. It looks like we’ve got the bigger winds and seas until Friday. The further west we go, the calmer everything gets …. Very much looking forward to that!
We’re all in good spirits, albeit tired and planning what cocktails we’re having once we get there.
Simon came up with the best way to describe big winds, boat surfing down big waves and all the noises that you hear on the boat “The night is dark and full of terrors”
Everything looks better and easier to put into perspective with the sunrise, which is incidentally when Simon goes to bed!
The advantage of this weather is that we’re making awesome daily mileage – we’re averaging 150 nm a day at the moment. The last 24 hrs has seen a new record of 165 nautical miles!!!
How’s everyone’s mental health you ask? Well, we’re at the stage of naming all the bits of the boat – Boat = Elice, dinghy = Judith Chalmers, the very needy autohelm is still under discussion – feel free to email us with your suggestions. Simon says that it reminds him of his mate Liam.
The weather’s definitely warmer and the bikini tops have come out – the boys do look rather fetching in their matching manikins and their tan lines are starting to join up nicely.
There were 2 more additions to the Flying Suicide Squad today and in honor of Masterchef – The Professionals – we’ve decided to keep the salt baked Elice on our menu.
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Adios for now
Captain Mac
Our Big Boaty Adventure 