We have made some 62 miles since departing from Flores yesterday afternoon and now have some 75 miles to make before reaching Horta. Winds have been pretty much as predicted.

It is quite nice being back at sea with lots of fresh fruit and vegetables for a change. Interestingly we have not seen many fish (just one or two tuna around the boat) and have caught none. Still we bought some pieces of chicken in Flores so we won't being going short on our meals. Yesterday was rainy and very overcast but today this has given way to sunshine and bright blue seas.

Meanwhile we have a new crew member on board: Randy Getty who joined us in Flores. It is a bit of a long story but Randy applied to join Phoenicia nearly 2 years ago but for various reasons never managed to get on board but his interest remained.

His passions are black and white photography (film not digital- see www.rgetty.com for more), drawing, travel and sailing. He was helping crew the yacht Ria across the Atlantic who had also called into Flores last week and by coincidence we both happened to be in the same place at the same time. On seeing Phoenicia at anchor he asked his skipper Robert Louth if he could jump ship (thanks Robert for agreeing) and approached us. And having already seen his application we agreed. Randy has been busy ever since shooting roll after roll of black and white film on board. Due to time commitments he will probably only be with us until Horta as he has to go back to New Mexico and pick up on his work as a sign writer. At least he is getting a taste of what it is like to sail on Phoenicia.
 

We weighed anchor at 1400 hours this afternoon and left the island of Flores shortly afterwards.
We are now heading easterly with a fresh south westerly wind. Tomorrow we expect the wind to veer to the west and later to the north west which should help us towards Horta on the island of Faial, some 120 miles to the south east from here. All the crew are well and have had a few days to relax a bit
 

Having a whale of a time!

We have had an interesting day or two even if we didn't manage to see the football world cup final. We have made good progress towards the Azores and are now just 40 miles from the Lajes, the entry port for the island of Flores.

Whilst we had intended to head direct for Horta, as we are so close to Flores it seems prudent to make landfall there before heading on to Horta which is some 130 miles to the east. God willing we will be in Flores by lunchtime tomorrow and from there we will make our way to Horta to pick up our new crew members.

Generally conditions have been overcast with a light drizzle from time to time and a northerly wind- not pleasant but not too bad either. Meanwhile our big event yesterday was a close encounter with a sperm whale-too close an encounter to be sure. One minute the boat rolled as we surfed over quite a large wave, the next we had a young 7 meter long sperm whale beside us and less than a boat length away. Then something strange happened. The whale started to violently thrash around in the water as if it was very agitated or shocked at seeing Phoenicia alongside it. Although its back looked fine there is a possibility that its tail was caught by the barnacles on our keel as we approached it although we never heard any knock against the ship as such. We then noticed a brown patch around the whale as if it had defecated- something they apparently do when in shock. This all happened very quickly but not before Aziz had time to get his camera and get some shots of it thrashing around and ultimately diving some 100-200 meters astern of us. And it was through the picture of its tail that we were able to identify that it was a sperm whale.

  
It certainly made for an exciting encounter. That and the prospect of a landfall in the not too distant future has meant that there has been a bit of a buzz on board.

P.S We have just sighted land, the small island of Corvo to the north of Flores.

Our position at 1200 hours was 39.47.80 north, 31.46.9 West.

As we make our way towards the Azores which appears to be getting closer by the day -it is time to do another profile on one of the crew members who is helping to sail Phoenicia on this historic voyage. It is the turn of Daniel Hallstrom to be profiled.

Daniel is 27 and was born in North Carolina, USA. He joined Phoenicia is November in Mayotte with his long-term girl friend Alice Palmer ( crew member on Phoenicia from Mayotte to St Helena and now back in the real world. Hello Alice-hope it is going well.). Daniel has more varied interests and passions than most people manage to pack into their lives. At school he got interested in maps and geography which led him to do a BA degree in municipal and regional planning leading to a job where he was the first town planner for a small town in North Carolina. After a couple of years the "small town" part of his work became a bit limiting and he decided to see part of the world (and a lot of the world's salt water) through participating in Phoenicia. He has a strong taste for the outdoors and the wilderness, regularly going hiking, kayaking and also has a wish to do some off the beaten track climbing. No wonder he fits into the Phoenicia culture on board ship.

He is also something of a literary specialist and on board Phoenicia writes page after page of often very profound poems about happenings in every day life. In his note book these are often illustrated with rather amusing sketches of cartoon type characters. For Daniel writing is an important part of his persona and he is part way though writing a book on a fictional character he has developed. Another dimension is his acting and theatrical ability. He can often be heard whilst he is at the helm singing along with some rock or pop tune or coming up with a theatrical way to wake the on coming watch. Today he impersonated a DJ giving a report and then invited the listeners to come up on deck and see for themselves and get some dinner too.

Another part of Daniel's character is his easy going nature and sense of fair play. When suggesting recently that it might be a good idea if we should each have our own 2 litre water bottles to share our daily rations, he was quick to say that if we didn't want to go down that route he wouldn't object even though the previous water system was causing him some discomfort, when it ran out before the allotted time for the new jerry can of water to be opened.

Finally Daniel spends some of his time thinking about what entrepreneurial activity he might pursue on his return to the US. Needless to say he has been given plenty of thinking time of late and has been able to read one or two business books as well.
 

We have made another good days progress with 95 miles under our belts over the 24 hour period. We are now experiencing wind from the north and north west which is pushing us towards the south east which we expect to last for about a day and will then hopefully give way to more westerly winds for the next period thereafter.

During the last 24 hours the wildlife scene has changed dramatically. Having been largely absent for the last 3 weeks, the greater shearwaters are back in large numbers. We have also witnessed vast numbers of sardines being hunted down by bonita and tuna with the greater shearwaters never far from the incredible scenes of splashing and fish of all kinds taking to the air.
The frenzied splashing activity alone creates a considerable noise as the hunting groups pass us by. And with luck we have managed to capture some of this on film too.

All of this and our approach towards the island of Flores does indeed make one wonder if the Phoenicians had discovered the Azores. There is an account of Carthaginian coins being discovered on Flores in the 1700's but the story cannot be authenticated although some believe it to be true. And indeed many introductions to the Azores start with the fact that "it was known in
Ancient times" and others state that the Phoenicians discovered them although it was uninhabited when Prince Henry the Navigator re-discovered them in 1435. How the connection between the Azores and the Phoenicians has been made in these accounts is unclear but perhaps the next quotation gives us a clue or is it referring to some other land mass to the West? America perhaps?

The quote below is from Diodorus Siculus, A Greek from Sicily (Siculus =
the Sicilian) living in the first century BC writes in his fifth book:

But now that we have discussed what relates to the islands which lie
within the Pillars of Heracles, we shall give an account of those which are
in the ocean. For there lies out in the deep off Libya [=Africa] an island
of considerable size, and situated as it is in the ocean it is distant from
Libya a voyage of a number of days to the west. Its land is fruitful, much
of it being mountainous and not a little being a level plain of surpassing
beauty. 2 Through it flow navigable rivers which are used for irrigation,
and the island contains many parks planted with trees of every variety and
gardens in great multitudes which are traversed by streams of sweet water;
on it also are private villas of costly construction, and throughout the
gardens banqueting houses have been constructed in a setting of flowers, and
in them the inhabitants pass their time during the summer season, since the
land supplies in abundance everything which contributes to enjoyment and
luxury. 3 The mountainous part of the island is covered with dense thickets
of great extent and with fruit-trees of every variety, and, inviting men to
life among the mountains, it has cozy glens and springs in great number. In
a word, this island is well supplied with springs of sweet water which not
only makes the use of it enjoyable for those who pass their life there but
also contribute to the health and vigour of their bodies. 4 There is also
excellent hunting of every manner of beast and wild animal, and the
inhabitants, being well supplied with this game at their feasts, lack of
nothing which pertains to luxury and extravagance; for in fact the sea which
washes the shore of the island contains a multitude of fish, since the
character of the ocean is such that it abounds throughout its extent with
fish of every variety. 5 And, speaking generally, the climate of the island
is so altogether mild that it produces in abundance the fruits of the trees
and the other seasonal fruits for the larger part of the year, so that it
would appear that the island, because of its exceptional felicity, were a
dwelling-place of a race of gods and not of men.
20 In ancient times this island remained undiscovered because of its
distance from the entire inhabited world, but it was discovered at a later
period for the following reason. The Phoenicians, who from ancient times on
made voyages continually for purposes of trade, planted many colonies
throughout Libya and not a few as well in the western parts of Europe. And
since their ventures turned out according to their expectations, they
amassed great wealth and essayed to voyage beyond the Pillars of Heracles
into the sea which men call the ocean. 2 And, first of all, upon the Strait
itself by the Pillars they founded a city on the shores of Europe, and since
the land formed a peninsula they called the city Gadeira [Cadiz]; . 3 The
Phoenicians, then, while exploring the coast outside the Pillars for the
reasons we have stated and while sailing along the shore of Libya, were
driven by strong winds a great distance out into the ocean. And after being
storm-tossed for many days they were carried ashore on the island we
mentioned above, and when they had observed its felicity and nature they
caused it to be known to all men. 4 Consequently the Tyrrhenians, at the
time when they were masters of the sea, purposed to dispatch a colony to it;
but the Carthaginians prevented their doing so, partly out of concern lest
many inhabitants of Carthage should remove there because of the excellence
of the island, and partly in order to have ready in it a place in which to
seek refuge against an incalculable turn of fortune, in case some total
disaster should overtake Carthage. For it was their thought that, since they
were masters of the sea, they would thus be able to move, households and
all, to an island which was unknown to their conquerors.



With grateful thanks to Franz Fuhrer for his assistance with the above quotation and discussions about the land in question.

Our position at 1200 hours was: 40.04.32 North, 35.25.90 West.




 

The winds have indeed freshened and we have been making much better progress of late- in fact some 94 miles over the last 24 hours. We expect a similar performance tomorrow as we are currently sailing in a fresh breeze at between 5 to 6 knots, speeds we have not seen for many weeks. Unfortunately we are not out of the woods yet as there are some tricky winds to negotiate over the weekend but we will be doing our best to get towards landfall as soon as we can. We are also conscious that by the weekend we will have been at sea for 80 consecutive days! Supplies and water are just about holding out okay. There is still plenty of lentils, sweet-corn and corned beef in the locker! And our large shoal of tuna seem to have no difficulty keeping up with us - even at 5-6 knots.
 

We have managed to get to our intended position just north of the 40 degrees of latitude (N) and have started to benefit from westerly winds and are now managing to do around 3 knots. We expect to be able to do this for at least the next couple of days as the winds are predicted to be quite favourable.

We are now just less than 500 miles from Horta and 375 from Flores, evidence we are indeed beginning to get closer towards our intended landfall.

Meanwhile we recovered another pink buoy earlier today, this time from the Lady Clare. Our tender is now half full of pink buoys and we are wondering if there is a resell value for them in the Azores amongst the fishermen there. No doubt they cost quite a bit new.
 

Over the last 24 hours we have had a similar performance as yesterday doing just a little under 50 miles over the period. We are nearly at our required latitude and hopefully the predicted better winds from after mid week will speed our easterly progress.

Aziz has taken some photographs of various events over the last few weeks including one of the many chess matches - pictured below a match between Daniel and Clinton, hospitality as Carl and Rachel onboard the yacht Sophia hand over goodies to Phoenicia and finally Clinton performing an unusual kick-dive into the Atlantic for a cool down.

Meanwhile this morning we recovered another pink fishing buoy with the name Nita Darlene on it and a smaller buoy attached to it had the colours of the Irish flag painted over it. We guess that is where its home was until it broke free.





 

Slightly better winds have given us over 50 miles these past 24 hours as we have headed north to get better winds for later in the week - just north of the 40 degrees of latitude. We have seen a couple of ships and at the time of writing there is a yacht on the horizon heading towards the Azores.

We have been fascinated these last few days by the huge number of fish that are congregating near the boat and we have concluded that it must be spawning time for them, otherwise there seems little point in the frenzied activity of hurling themselves together! But as we are not biologists we are not totally certain. There are of course times when predators are on the prowl and we have seen several large marlin but generally the massive shoals of fish (50 -100 meters wide) don't seem to come together just as a defence mechanism.

We have also seen quite a lot of rubbish in the water and we have recovered a number of items including a bucket and a large pink fishing buoy this morning. Clinton being the hero and diving in to attach a rope to it to haul it in.
 

As per the last report, we have indeed had a slow weekend making just 24 miles over the 24 hour period. Winds have since picked up a bit but we don't expect a lot of progress until midweek.

Meanwhile chess mania seems to have broken out on board Phoenicia with almost endless games being played back to back whilst the ship meanders slowly along. The Indonesians rule the roost but every small victory over them is celebrated even though they give us amateurs many "are you sure" chances before going for the kill. It is all a great deal of fun in what otherwise could be rather frustrating circumstances. Still on the bright side we are now less than 500 miles from Flores and just over 600 miles from Horta.
 

Progress has been a little slower over the last 24 hours having made some 47 miles. And winds have since died down further so we expect a slow weekend.

Unfortunately we don't have the football or Wimbledon finals to entertain us just the hope of better winds early next week and a few still left to read. Overnight we changed tacks as the wind direction changed and we are now on the starboard tack heading slightly further north east. Yesterday we saw a couple of ships in the distance, including a general cargo vessel from the Seatrade line. Other than that there is not much to report.
 

We continue to gradually eat up the miles towards the Azores and have managed another 60 over the last 24 hours. Winds are a little on the light side but are ok even though they may deteriorate further over the weekend. Meanwhile we continue to haul in the fish and think about landfall.
 

Our attempt to head north was largely unsuccessful partly as a result of the easterly setting current and partly due to the light winds. As a result we "only" made 52 miles over the last 24 hours ago- something we would have been very happy with a few weeks back but our expectations rise as we do better. We are now some 660 miles from Horta in the Azores, our preferred landfall.

The weather is a little overcast at the moment but the wind seems to be strengthening and giving us a better chance to head north east on the port tack. Overnight we encompassed a lone oil tanker, that through our Raymarine AIS system we identified as the Pegasus which was headed for West Africa.

Apart from that we have had little activity other than the occasional large displays of tuna jumping out of the water for small fry. We continue to eat large amounts of tuna that some on board say now taste like chicken!

Yesterday afternoon we celebrated 70 continuous days at sea and ate the cookies and pop corn that the yacht Sophia gave us earlier in the week, for which many thanks.

 

We continue to make some progress towards the East and now have less than 800 miles to the Azores. However the forecast weather patterns have meant that we have headed further north this morning as the Azores high appears to be moving northwards, which isn't very favourable for us.

Overnight we saw a couple of yachts heading in the direction of the Azores but both seemed to have their VHF sets turned off and one had no lights at all!
 

We have had a less busy 24 hours than yesterday and getting used to the better wind conditions.

In fact the wind has turned nicely for us and we are heading almost directly for the Azores and steering 085 degrees by the compass (68 degrees true). We are managing to average between 3 and 4 knots and in fact have managed to cover over 165 miles over the last 48 hours and some 80 miles this past 24 hours. The wind looks set to continue this pattern for the next few days so we are hoping the progress will continue at least until the weekend.

We received the news of England's football defeat against Germany with mixed emotions. In a perverse sense, we are now almost pleased that we are not missing out on a euphoric English party that we could not be part of as the team progressed further and further into the competition. Alas may be we will have to throw our lot in with Yuri and Vera and support Brazil!

Meanwhile due to the new bottle of olive oil on board (see yesterday's blog) Aziz and Peter just couldn't resist making fried corn fritters for breakfast and fried fish and rice for lunch. Right now that sorts of counts as a luxury - at least for many of the crew on board.
 

We have had a busy 24 hours on board Phoenicia. The wind has picked up nicely and we continue to make progress.

Over night we encountered two ships (one which came fairly close- at about 2 miles) and had one reasonably heavy down pour of rain that lasted about half an hour when Steff was on the helm. We then encountered a large super tanker this morning and a yacht called Sophia. The yacht came to check us out - you don't often see vessels like ours out on the ocean waves. Over the radio we then met Carl and Rachel who explained they are on their way to Norway ( we
suspect from their email address that we exchanged later that they have a website called www.sophiagoestonorway.blogspot.com They kindly asked us if we needed anything as they were not long out of Bermuda. Pride prevented us for asking for anything although we had recently run out of cooking oil and are low on a few other items.

A few minutes later they were alongside us and threw us a bag of goodies. Imagine our surprise when we found a bag of pop corn, a bottle of olive oil and some luxurious coconut cookies and sachets of Italian roast coffee. They could never have guessed that half the crew were desperate for oil to fry some tuna. It was a blessing in disguise and one can only think that sometimes the world works in mysterious ways. We returned the favour by attaching a bottle of Delheim's best rose wine to a heaving line which Rachel recovered moments later. We found out they are also heading for Horta in the Azores but of course they will be there long before we arrive. Hopefully we will have the pleasure of meeting them there. We waved each other goodbye and within an hour or two Sophia was out of sight. Phoenicia is alone again and we have the ocean around us all to ourselves.

Except that is for our shoal of a hundred or so tuna that have accompanied us from the equator. Before lunch we witnessed the largest individual tuna we have yet to see at about 5 foot long and at least a foot wide - quite an incredible size. Also yesterday evening we were visited by a shoal of dolphins that were hunting aggressively and making a lot of splashes! It was a joy to see them and traditionally a sign of good luck.

Their display only lasted some 10 or so minutes and then they too were soon out of sight.
 

We have had another slightly better 24 hours and made just over 50 miles over the 24 hour period, although the real improvement came late yesterday evening. We are now averaging between 2.5 to 3 knots and the Azores is now just over 930 miles away.

The water rationing by 2 litre containers seems to be working well- everyone seems to have plenty apart from Peter -who has nearly finished his but will have to wait until dinner for fresh supplies.

Now for our next crew member profile - that of Steff as she is known, although more correctly as Stephanie Edwards (pictured below)

Steff is our youngest crew member on board at 25 and is single. She is also the only female crew member currently on the ship and joined in November in Mayotte and plans to see the voyage through until Syria.

You could say that Steph is in some ways your English rose type of girl with dark wavy hair and hazel eyes. After school she took a gap year and worked for some of that time in an old people's home. She then went to Nottingham University to read Ancient history focussing on the Greeks and Romans but the course didn't include much about the Phoenicians! After that she worked for a well known publisher in Cambridge for a couple of years before she decided to run away to sea and join Phoenicia.

On the recent leg since St Helena she has managed to put up with the other 7 male crew members without batting an eye lid. Suffice is to say she is very laid back and nothing seems to ruffle her feathers. She has also managed to put up with Peter's constant yachtmaster babble (as they are on the same watch with Dirman and he prepares for some exams) which would probably have driven anyone else insane. Undoubtedly she is the most able of the cooks on board and even keeps her own ingredients to make special dishes- such as cakes and cookies which she treats us to from time to time. Best not to get on her wrong side then! Hopefully when she sees the Roman ruins in Carthage, Alexandria and Syria she will judge the adventure to have been well worth making.
 

We have had a slightly better 24 hours and made slightly less than 50 miles over the 24 hour period.

Conditions remain much the same although we are starting to get in a better position to benefit from the clockwise rotating wind generated from the Azores high.

Meanwhile conditions on board remain fine. Leisure activities are coming to the fore- a ship's play is being organised for next week and the number of chess matches are increasing with the Indonesian crew members winning most convincingly.

Water supplies at 33 jerry cans remain adequate although today we have instituted a new procedure! Each crew member now has their own 2 litre bottle as some felt they weren't always getting their fair share. Dinner time will be the time the water is dispensed. It will be interesting to see how the procedure works but hopefully as we get nearer towards the Azores we can ease up a bit on the amounts. For now we remain conservative.
 

We managed some 40 miles over the last 24 hours. There may be signs that the wind is gradually increasing but don't count on it. Better watch the football instead - it sounds a lot more entertaining than what we are doing right now which is between 1-2 knots. We have also been making a few repairs to the caulking (to stop a few small leaks) and filling our empty jerry cans with salt water to ensure our ballast is evenly distributed. Apart from that life on board continues its slow pace.
 

The sea gods are not exactly rushing to our aid at the moment and we have had another period of almost non-existent wind overnight and made relatively little progress. Since early morning the wind has picked up a little and we are now making between one and two knots towards the Azores. At times we have tied a number of small preventers on the leeward (front) side of the sail to hold it up and to stop it flogging against the mast due to the lack of wind! This seems to work quite well in the circumstances and we rather wish we had thought of it before. Stronger winds are undoubtedly ahead of us but it is taking a long time for us to get to get far enough north to take advantage of them.

Late yesterday afternoon we thought we were being overtaken by a large warship, such was the vessel's unusual shape-almost triangular from our initial stance. Momentarily thoughts wandered as to how they might show us incredible generosity, launch their helicopter and drop us bags of steak, ice cream and fresh vegetables. Alas it turned out to be the container ship from the NKY Cool line with an add oddly arranged load of containers and cranes. Hopes sank and it was back to our little world on the sun-drenched ocean waves and Phoenicia bobbing along.
 

We have had another 24 hours of slow going progress but have at least managed to reduce our miles to the Azores down to about 1,000 miles. We continue to believe that better winds are just over the horizon!

Now for our next crew member profile, that of the other watch leader, Sulhan (pictured left). On official documents his name is spelt Julhan but is usually pronounced and spelt with an S.

Sulhan is in his late 40's according to his passport although some might say he looks a little older. He is married and has three children and one grandson. He lives on the island of Pagerunan Kecil (the same as Dirman) in the Kangean Islands north of Bali and has pretty much always lived there.

By trade he is a motor boat captain and has sailed literally hundreds of thousands of miles across Indonesia on various assignments. He has also sailed on traditional Indonesian ships including the Borobudur ship (see below). He is very agile and strong and always happy to go aloft to make repairs to the mast and sails, even if conditions would put off others from venturing forth. On board Phoenicia he looks after the rigging and advises on such matters as well as thoughts on the conditions, the best sailing strategy and leading the anchoring or berthing party. He has an uncanny knack with predicting the weather conditions and is undoubtedly our most experienced sailor.

He doesn't speak a lot of English but probably understands more than he lets on. He seems to laugh at our silly jokes- so must understand quite a bit. He has a mischievous look about him much of the time and although he is the smallest crew member he wears the longest shorts on the ship. He is a very devout Muslim and spends much of his time praying and chanting verses from the Koran. He also likes the odd smoke but in his case the cigarettes ran out a few weeks ago but so far no with-drawl symptoms and he remains happy and cheerful.

Apart from his family and grand son his proudest moment is probably the honour of the State Medal he received from President Megawati of Indonesia for Services to Culture for his role in the 12,000 mile Borobudur Ship Expedition in 2003-2004.(www.borobudurshipexpedition.com). In his spare time he likes to fish and to play chess at which he is arguably the best on the ship. On the island of Pagerunan Kecil, he is an expert in their traditional "kick boxing" type of martial art and often wins such competitions.
 

We have had another slow day in our office-some 40 miles made over the last
24 hours and have nearly reached 32 degrees North. Since midnight the winds have freshened slightly and over the next couple of days we expect that progress to continue as we Azrrrrrrrrrr !!! (as Dirman puts it ) our way towards the Azores.

The slightly fresher winds have raised spirits on board (not that they were ever down) and there is quite a bit of talk about the first things to do in Horta, Azores once we get there. Apart from mentions of watching some world cup football, the list revolves around eating and drinking -especially junk and fatty foods - like burgers, steaks, cheese and ice cream -all the unhealthy but nice things we don't have on board! Anyway our bodies are going to be saved for a while yet it would seem.
 

Position Report 21st June 2010- two months at sea and towards the Americas!

Conditions remain much the same (although we did have a rainy period that lasted a couple of hours during the early morning) and we achieved just under 50 miles over the last 24 hours.

Our position of a few weeks ago reminds us of the quote below claimed to be found on a stone around 1872 near João Pessoa in northern Brazil. We would have posted it earlier but some of those following the blog and who worry unnecessarily about our every move might have thought we were actually going to make landfall in Brazil, the Caribbean or America and may have worried themselves even more! Now we are heading where we always thought the winds would take us, it is interesting to speculate whether the Phoenicians got to the Americas. The quote below, although considered a forgery by some experts, and our Atlantic voyage certainly gives credibility to the possibility of the Phoenicians reaching the Americas.

"We are sons of Canaan from Sidon, the city of the king. Commerce has cast us on this distant shore, a land of mountains. We set [sacrificed] a youth for the exalted gods and goddesses in the nineteenth year of Hiram, our mighty king. We embarked from Ezion-geber into the Red Sea and voyaged with ten ships. We were at sea together for two years around the land belonging to Ham [Africa] but we were separated by a storm [lit., 'from the hand of Baal'] and we were no longer with our companions. So we have come here, twelve men and three women, on a . shore which I, The Admiral, control. But auspiciously may the exalted gods and goddesses favour us."

We have had a number of recent emails on the subject of the Phoenicians voyaging to the Americas as it seems our voyage is stirring up the debate that has raged for over a century as to whether the Phoenicians could have reached the Americas. With many thanks to those who have contacted us including Franz Führer.
 

Conditions have continued to be unhelpful to Phoenicia and we have had only very light winds over the period.

We have made between one and two knots on average and managed 43 miles over the last 24 hours. The weather is hot and the seas are calm- we await the stronger winds which are just to the North of us- everyone is fine. We met a lone French yachtsman this afternoon as he sailed right alongside in his small yacht with a distinctive gold coloured hull, which he said was named "tout le vere" or something close. Although his yacht (the first we have seen in the Atlantic) was very small compared to Phoenicia, it was sailing nicely and passed us quickly with only a few moments to shout between us as he didn't seem to have his VHF on. He said he hoped to be in Azores in just 8-10 days. If only!
 

Since our last report the winds have been lighter and we have managed just 59 miles over the 24 hour period. We had been hoping for a bit of a whoooosh (a popular and optimistic expression on board Phoenicia at the moment) as far as progress is concerned but that has yet to happen and it now looks like we may have a few calm days ahead of us before we get stronger winds.

Meanwhile we continue to monitor food and water supplies. We have some 43 jerry cans of water left following a recount this morning. Aziz thinks that if we get down to 20 jerry cans we should hijack a ship and demand water - we assume he is joking! Interestingly we are seeing a few more ships as we head towards the mid Atlantic. Food supplies remain ok even if the number of favourite items are starting to dwindle...there are still plenty of lentils, corn on the cob, rice, fish and tomato paste and spices.

All crew remain well.
 

Since yesterday winds have improved a little more and we now have a gentle breeze directly astern of us. Our main sail is centred and as high as we can get it up the yard which allows us maximum use of the sail area, rather than having the foot of the sail furled. So over the 24 period we made some 76 miles towards the North East.

Now for the second profile of a crew member - Peter Hickman, his background, skills and how he is coping with Phoenicia's longest leg at sea.

Peter, who is quite a character, is a member of Dirman's watch. See photograph of Peter below.

Peter is South African, in his mid 40's and married to Vanessa (Crew member from Cape Town to St Helena). They have three sons, the elder two of which are currently running Peter's metal recycling business near Richards Bay.

It is Peter's first time outside of Africa and so far all he has seen has been two small Atlantic Islands (St. Helena and Ascension Island) and tens of thousands of square miles of ocean- as we have travelled some 7000 miles since Cape Town. Hopefully he well get to see some of the more interesting things that Europe has to offer as we enter the Mediterranean and see its present and past splendours.

It seems that Peter tends to do things either quickly or in large quantities and this includes eating, drinking and talking. On the latter point, he is rarely quiet for long as he is never short of anything to say, and if he is not talking he is asking a question!

During the trip he has immersed himself in a number RYA books for the Yachtmaster's course which he hopes to complete in the not too distant. When he is not doing another job he is usually to be found intensely studying some element of navigation or yacht safety. He has two main passions in life, apart from his family. One is sailing where he a member of the Zululand Yacht Club at Richards Bay (where he met Phoenicia and talked his way on board!). He has also spent longer than can be remembered rebuilding a yacht for himself, which, now virtually complete will be launched on his return to South Africa. His other passion is fishing. In fact this activity for Peter borders on an obsession! Fortunately for Phoenicia he bought most of his fishing tackle with him including two rods, reels and endless supplies of lures and line. As a result our fishing successes have been transformed and rarely a day goes by when no fish are caught. Recently the supply of fish has been so plentiful that they are caught to order, depending on what the cook's of the day require.

During the trip he seems to have managed to give up smoking- something hopefully he can maintain once the temptations on shore are in front of him.

His favourite words seem to be "that's lekker" meaning "that's nice, sweet". He is undoubtedly enjoying the expedition.
 

Wind conditions have improved further over the last 24 hours and we have managed some 60 miles towards the North East over the period. Last evening we experienced a local depression with some large black rain clouds and associated winds. Fortunately they didn't last for too long and eventually gave way to a reasonably consistent south westerly wind that has given us just over 3 knots since then. So to sum up, progress remains fairly slow but we are making progress and have less than 1400 miles to the Azores.

Now for the first crew member profile, their background, skills and how they are coping with Phoenicia's longest leg at sea.

We will start with Dirman (pictured below) as he is one of the two watch leaders, the other being Sulhan. Dirman's proper name is Sudirman but he is always known as Dirman. He is in his mid thirties and is a ship's carpenter by trade. He is married with two children of school age. He is originally from the island of Madura in Indonesia but now lives on the island of Pagerunan Kecil where he met his wife through his work. Pagerunan Kecil is a small island (part of the Kangean Islands) some 60 miles north of Bali.

On board ship Dirman is the ship's carpenter and engineer/mechanic. In fact if any things need fixing, Dirman usually has the knowledge to fix it.
He is always smiling and positive, in spite of all the things which are forever breaking down that he has to fix. Fortunately he is blessed with a rare knack of being able to make things work that don't want to.

He is quite a devout Muslim and it seems the more so as the longer our voyage take. He smokes a bit and is the only crew member still to have cigarettes on board after our 50 + days at sea. He keeps the number of cigarettes he actually has left as a bit of secret - it has been about 5 or 6 for the last 10 days!

He doesn't speak a lot of English but enough to get by. His favourite saying is "May be yes, may be no". His proudest achievement apart from his family, is probably the honour of the State Medal he received from President Megawati of Indonesia for Services to Culture for his role in the 12,000 mile Borobudur Ship Expedition in 2003-2004.(www.borobudurshipexpedition.com). In his spare time he likes to fish and to play chess at which he annoyingly good at.

In short, he in an invaluable member of the team and we are lucky to have him on board.
 

We have had another 24 hours of reasonable progress, some 43 miles to the North East with the winds variable but mainly from the West. The temperature is currently nearly 30 degrees Celsius - so pretty hot both above and below deck.

Apologies for the Yellowbrick tracker taking a break- it needs charging after a couple of months service and we have had to rig a cable across the deck to the stern post so that it can be recharged. Hopefully it will be back in working order shortly.

As the cooking profiles were popular (and probably gave the wrong impression that we spend all our time cooking) over the next week or so we will include some profiles of the crew members, their backgrounds, skills and how they are coping with Phoenicia's longest and arguably the most difficult leg of the expedition.
 

Our progress towards the North East has continued with Phoenicia making some 50 miles towards the Azores over the last 24 hours, but with some 1500 miles still to be covered! Winds are currently light with rainy clouds giving the occasional wind bursts and damp decks. We are hopeful that the winds will strengthen as we get closer towards the Azores.

Meanwhile the crew are well and making the most of the plentiful supply of fish and rice! We are missing out on the excitement of the world cup football but as we have not experienced all the hype, I guess we won't miss the high and lows of the tournament that much.
 

For the first time since we sailed in the Indian Ocean and after 52 days since when we left Ascension Island, we have made our first mileage towards the East. Having made good progress north overnight, we reached our most westerly point at 0700 hours this morning at 54.31.2 West, assisted by local wind shifts due to rain clouds and favourable current.

Since then our progress towards the North East has continued and Phoenicia's heading is at last towards the Azores and the Mediterranean. With the variable winds that dominate these parts we can't really take such winds for granted and we are bound to have some setbacks in the days ahead. However the wind direction is historically Westerly in this area during June and the most favourable we have had in the North Atlantic to date. We are now steering a course of 015 degrees true. As a result of our progress we will have a small celebration later this afternoon to celebrate the beginning our easterly progress.
 

Although we have made exactly the same mileage as yesterday (about 50 miles) the direction has been much better and towards the north. The wind direction looks like it is set to improve although the winds for now remain fairly light.

Phoenicia remains surrounded by fish and Dirman has been putting a piece of red plastic, in the shape of a small fish, on a line and hook and within minutes a greedy tuna appears on the end of the line. Fishing couldn't be simpler at the moment.

Meanwhile other cooking specialities are as follows:

Sulhan just loves fish and rice, particularly the fish heads which he makes into a soup. He also likes the smaller fish because they are tastier than the larger ones-so he says.

Danielle likes to experiment with his cooking, so many different dishes have appeared including fish cakes. He also bakes bread, sometimes unlevened, as well as granola - his breakfast speciality.

Philip tends to cook meals with sauces of tomato paste and spices, and occasionally dares to mix in one of the many cans of corned beef disguised by the concentration of spices. He also played his hand at bread making and enjoyed early success at it -beginners luck?

Aziz also likes to cook and disguise the corned beef and has so far come up with the best fritter recipe for them- totally unrecognisable from the rather unpleasant tinned corned beef we have. He also likes frying pancakes, corn fritters and fish and on a personal level likes very hot spices with his meals. One of the funniest comments on a crew members cooking?

From Peter: What do you think of my grilled fish?

"It tastes like fish with a can of chopped tomatoes on top" replies Clinton- which rather summed up the dish. Interestingly it hasn't reappeared since!
 

The last 24 hours have been disappointing with the winds from East North East which has meant we have made relatively little northwards progress and been pushed further West at some rate during the 50.4 miles we covered over the period. Nevertheless we have nearly reached the latitude of 24 degrees north, and the more we tick off the better chances of heading towards the East.

Yesterday, among a few other things, most of the crew turned their hands to sewing four patches on the lower port quarter of the sail. This we did whilst on the move, to save the hassle of lower the 1 ton of yard and sail on deck. The down side was that we had to have three people holding the sail against the force of the wind (always too much just when you don't want it).

Whilst Clinton stitched from the windward side, Dirman and Daniel took it in turns to sit on the guard rail on the leeward side of the sail to push the needle and thread back. If the wind blew too strongly there was a danger the sail would push them off the rail! Fortunately because the rest of the crew were doing their best to hold the sail in place and with the help of an attached rope, the sail behaved it self. There was some amusing talk as instructions were given to the leeward sewer as to where to push the needle for the return stitch-upper a bit to the heavens, lower, lower, no back etc.

It became more interesting with the Indonesian translations for Dirman.
After an hour and a half some 4 patches of around 4 x 6 inches had been put in place and covered some holes that had gradually become larger over the last few days. There are one or two other very small holes in the sail at the moment but nothing to get worried about just yet.
 

Winds have remained a bit on the light side these past 24 hours and as a result we have only managed to sail 46 miles over the period. Our course remains to the North West until we happen upon a high weather system, which has proved elusive to date. However the barometer has been rising over the last 48 hours, so there is hope for us yet.

Meanwhile back to those cooking skills.

As each member of the crew has to cook at least once or twice every four days, each person takes on something of a cooking personality with signature dish specialities.

Taking Dirman's watch as a starting point, this is how they tend to cook for the rest of us. Later we will take a look at Sulhan's watch.

Well Dirman loves deep frying fish! He makes a dry flour mixture with spices and dips the fish in it and then deep fries. They come out as little like KFC chicken - absolutely delicious and are served with boiled rice.

Co-incidentally Dirman calls his fried fillets of tuna - Ayam laut - chicken of the sea!

Steph is probably the most multi-talented cook on board at the moment and even has her own ingredients for certain dishes. However her main meals do follow a pattern. Her favourite fish dish at the moment is an excellent fish plo - a traditional dish we came across in St Helena and involves cooking fish, vegetables and rice together and into a very tasty meal. Her other dish which she tends to make every other week is making pizzas, which is no small job as one has to make the dough first before one adds the toppings and bakes them. Steph also makes the occasional cakes and biscuits - but we may have to drop a few hints as to how nice such and such would be for it to appear sometime later.

Clinton's cooking preferences revolve partly around bread making where he has also tended to experiment the most- initially adding jam and more recently adding corn to the dough. He does seem to get the bread to rise without fail which is more than can be said for some of the rest of us.

Lastly Peter, who has found a niche cooking corn fritters for breakfast and a series of fish curries for lunch or dinner. After several weeks he has a formula that seems to work and involves a little fish being fried, adding a mixture of curry powders and spices and then vegetables and his "secret" is to mix in a sachet of soup. Served with rice it comes out err nice, provided he hasn't got too carried away with the spices! For someone who didn't like spices a few months ago he certainly has an appetite for them now.
 

Our slow trek north continues with much the same weather pattern as the last few days and we recorded another 54 miles of progress towards the north west. And just after lunch we hit the latitude of 23 degrees north.

An update: Since writing about the brown duck-like gulls that have been chasing the flying fish, Kim Vickers (a member of the Ship's Committee and Crew Member for Phase 1) has correctly identified the bird as Greater Shearwater -please see picture attached. Yesterday nine Greater Shearwaters were chasing a single flying fish which escaped by landing near Phoenicia and swimming under the hull. Clearly one of the cleverer flying fish around.

Left: Image of a Greater Shearwater bird supplied by Kim Vickers

Wake-up calls: I am reminded that the other wake up call on Phoenicia is the sound of Yuri's recorder playing some harmonic tune. Alas we have not heard that for a few weeks now but no doubt it will be back when Yuri rejoins us in the Azores. Meanwhile we hope he is enjoying his break.
 

Yesterday afternoon the wind dropped and didn't return with any force until early evening. As a result we made less progress than the day before but still managed some 54 miles northwards. Reasonable winds from east south east have continued today.

With much time on our hands, meal times are an important time of the day and also signal, the times during the day to change watch. Each individual has his or her own way of announcing that "dinner is ready". Sometimes the message is delivered quietly to each bunk and on deck, others shout at the top of their voice that "dinner is ready", whilst others bang a tin bowl with a spoon to create something of a jingle.

The most original call to breakfast so far was Daniel's today when he sang, very well, a verse from the film Space Balls as follows:

Hello my baby,
Hello my honey,
Hello my ragtime gal,
Send me a kiss by wire,
Baby my heart's on fire,
And if you refuse me,
Then you'll lose me,
And you'll be left alone,
So baby, telephone and tell me...Makan Pagi! (Indonesian for breakfast).

We were then treated to his speciality breakfast of home made granola, tinned fruit, bread and jams!
 

The modest improvement in wind, as mentioned in the last update, has produced some better mileage, so over the last 24 hours we have managed some
74 miles.

Winds continue to be relatively light (12-15 knots) but seem to be coming more from the south than hitherto. With luck we may be in for a better spell over the next few days.
 

The slight improvement in wind which was mentioned in the previous blog has been maintained and we have managed another 55 miles over the last 24 hours.

One of the things we have been observing is the amazing wildlife as we make our passage. Of particular interest of late has been a better understanding of the numerous brown and white gulls (not sure of their proper name - they have brown heads and upper body with white breasts, under body and underneath their wings. In the water they look like a duck, take off like a duck but fly like a gull). They are about a foot long and probably have a wing span of at least two feet. They spend their time skimming the ocean about a foot or two above the water, very occasionally but unintentionally touching the waves, searching for flying fish and other species no doubt.

The flying fish usually become airborne shortly after a tuna has made a move towards the flying fish. At this point the poor flying fish is being pursued by the tuna below the surface and the brown gulls from above. The result is that the tuna and gulls are really hunting together. The gulls (of which there can be three or four chasing a single fish) invariably make several approaches to catch the fish but usually don't get close till the flying fish lands in the water again, at which point there is a lot of splashing in the water as the tuna and gulls compete to catch the fish. As the fish hits the water it loses momentum and can no longer get airborne, so its chances of escaping are quite slim. If the birds win the contest, they then fight each other for spoils accompanied by a lot of shrieking and squawking. The victor hurries away with the fish or part of a fish in its beak. The process then starts all over again. A great spectator viewing opportunity if you happen to be anywhere near the mid Atlantic on a slow moving boat!
 

Our passage North continues with a slight improvement in wind which has veered slightly from mainly East to South East giving us a better point of sail and speed- now nearer to 3 knots. Nothing to get too excited about but going in the right direction and our patience starting to be rewarded.

Life continues with the crew making a big effort to make life as good as possible for all on board.
Today for lunch we had beef and onion soup with lentils, followed by tuna fillets with rice, lentils and corn mix.

Supplemented with freshly baked bread. For tea this afternoon it looks like the pop corn may be being made once again-one of our favourites served with either salt, chilli pepper or honey.
 

Having set our sights quite low we have been presently surprised by the breeze today and are now making between 2-3 knots. We are close to 19 degrees of latitude and should reach 20 by the weekend as we claw our way north.

We can also now clearly see the Pole star on a good night, just below the Plough/big dipper. No doubt the Phoenicians would have been relying on it to estimate their latitude.

Whilst we were becalmed yesterday some of the crew made the most of one of the world's largest swimming pool and took a refreshing dip overboard to cool down. During the night we had a few hours of light rain and the ever industrious Aziz managed to collect 3 (20 litre) gerry cans of fresh water to add to the 60 (1.2 tons) we already have. As we use just over one can a day in our new regime, it looks like we won't run out anytime soon.
 

Blog & photographs from Steph Edwards (Crew from UK)


Sunset at sea                              Clinton & Daniel exercising on deck with the help of Peter!

I always thought this leg would be an interesting part of the voyage, a different kind of challenge to, say, the Cape leg. It was hard for me to imagine such a long time at sea and how to deal with it. Fortunately we knew it was going to be a good 2 months or more and so were adequately mentally prepared. Fortunate too that our crew is genial and good-natured and relaxed, and everyone gets along well - I can imagine that if it wasn't so, then the boat would quickly turn to a floating prison! The most difficult point so far was probably 2-3 weeks in, the point in which we would be coming to the end of a normal leg, which also coincided with directionless bobbing in the Doldrums, and the beginning of the end of some of the foodstuffs. The excitement of passing the Equator had been and gone. It was difficult to contemplate another 60 or more days or at that point.

Thankfully it quickly passed and we all seemed to settle in for the long haul, and now watch rolls into watch until, before you know it, weeks have gone by. Occasionally there there is a flurry of activity and we do something to the sail or the bilge pump, but mostly the days are the same, with a slight variation in: conditions and course, topics of conversation, fish-and-rice recipes, reading material. I think most of us are enjoying having so much time just to think and plan and read and be, this is the kind of time to yourself that you just don't get in 'normal life'.

The merry-go-round of reading material is getting a bit thin on the ground; fresh books are often devoured by two at a time, one on each watch, reading whilst the other is asleep. The few magazines we have on board have picked through been cover to cover, several times. Sometimes when we're feeling a bit too relaxed we will attempt some exercise - ongoing plans to devise a skipping routine are constantly skuppered by the deck-sweeping mainsail rendered impotent by a lack of wind, or inconvenient lurching of the boat in lumpy swells.

After so long at sea I'm beginning to forget what land looks, smells and feels like underfoot, it's almost as if it never existed; it feels further away than the sea does when you're stuck in the office over Winter. Our memories and the books we have on board seem like the only links to land. We still have another good few weeks to go, and I'm taking the approach that if I ever see land again it will be a pleasant surprise, but for now I'm just enjoying bobbing along in our funny little wooden home on the sea, with the sealife and birds (and occasional shark) for our neighbours, our constant escort of fish that we pillage daily for lunch and dinner, and the crest of waves and the shifting shapes and colours of the sky for our landscape.

Philip has promised us a beer when we're finally pointing in the right direction. I'm hoping that we get to the Azores before England get knocked out of the World Cup (if I could have one luxury item it might well be a newspaper, it's strange to be away from the news during big events like the election and the run up to the World Cup). I'm also looking forward to how good freshly laundered clothes are going to smell - clothing and particularly bedding takes on a curious scent after a few weeks in the heat on Phoenicia, a unique blend of rancid sweat, grease, fish, diesel, salt and pine tar. On a bad day the result in my bunk is something resembling a damp mule!

To sum up we made just 30.2 miles over the last 24 hours.
 

Position Report 1 June 2010

Since the last report, we have slowed down even more and managed just 48 miles over the last 24 hours. The seas are now almost windless and as flat as a pancake. We are currently managing to make about 1 knot giving us plenty of time to observe the wildlife and look out for whales now that the sea is so calm. So far no luck at the whale spotting.

Without the wind it is pretty hot on board which is making everyone quite tired and lethargic. Still we are doing our best to keep spirits up.
 

Our hoped for westerly winds have failed to materialise and instead we have experienced even lighter winds from the east south east which have at least enabled us to keep heading north. However we have done just 61 miles over the 24 hour period. Rather frustrating in that we missed a rather good weather window but alas we were far too far south to take advantage of it.Next time we will be much better positioned as we are now much further north.

Yesterday evening Steph made pineapple and tuna pizzas with a tomato paste, which made a delightful change to the standard fish and rice dishes which we have most of the time. Steph is rumoured to be writing or thinking about writing a blog about what motivates crew members to keep their spirits up during long passages like this - as we have now done 40 days since leaving Ascension Island and there is no land insight for several more weeks. If the blog materialises it will be interesting to learn what keeps us going.

Peter caught a large 30 lb yellow-fin tuna this morning and a new type of fish as yet unidentified and a couple of trigger fish later in the day.
 

We have experienced lighter winds over the last 24 hours enabling us to make just 69 miles. Fortunately the wind has enabled us to make good a course of almost true north. However the westerly winds we are hoping for have yet to materialise and it may be we need to reach 18 degrees north (another 24 hours away) before they become a reality.

Meanwhile the slow pace on board Phoenicia continues, with small issues such as getting the yeast to rise for the bread (Daniel is becoming a specialist in unleavened bread making!) and changing the oil for our diesel pump (Clinton) being our most challenging jobs this morning.
 

We continue to make better progress and are now managing to steer a course of 005 degrees which, after allowing for variation and leeway, enables us to make good a course of 330 true. So we haven't exactly turned the corner yet but you could say we are preparing to make the turn! Hopefully we will get a few days of westerly winds shortly to help us towards Azores, although the longer term forecast remains a bit mixed.

We managed just over 80 miles over night. Crew and ship all well.
 

We made better northerly progress overnight although the mileage at just under 75 miles over the past 24 hours was about the same.

The better wind angle has enabled us to hoist our main sail once again, so the purple and white stripes of the Phoenician's purple empire now fly over the mid Atlantic.

If you could see us it would be a terrific sight- brilliant sunshine, deep blue water with crisp white "horses heads" on the crests of the waves and Phoenicia's sail bellowing out and enabling her bows to push through the waves. It is really nice to have the main sail back.

We managed the sail change without incidence and are now making slightly faster progress at about 4 knots, which will hopefully increase further with the wind shift expected over the weekend.

Phoenicia continues to be surrounded by large shoals of tuna swimming along side us, as well as a few dorado and other smaller fish. This morning for the first time in many months we were accompanied by a mottled-brown coloured shark that kept us company for about half an hour- or should I say it kept Peter and Clinton company as they were like two school boys jumping up and down with excitement. The rest of us were preparing the main sail for hoisting!
 

We continue to make slightly better progress direction wise and have managed just under 75 miles over the past 24 hours.

We continue to deal with relatively minor but frustrating issues in terms of email communications and power generation but these are "normal" for an expedition of this type.

So for Next of Kin of Crew Members on board please note that when blogs or the Yellow Brick tracker go off air that this is down to some technical hitch, there is no need to worry or call the Phoenicia Office. Such inconveniences are to be expected from time to time. Furthermore if there should be an incident that impacts the ship or a crew member directly, we will always call you to appraise you of the situation- we have your contact numbers. Therefore if you have not heard from us, and hopefully you will not need to, you can assume that all is well on board.
Thank You.

 

Meanwhile we are looking forward to the weekend when we expect the weather to bring more favourable winds.
 

We received a telephone call from the ship last night to say they had some computer issues and although were able to receive emails, they were unable to send them, as a result there is not a proper blog for today, but they were happy to report that all crew was well, the ship was making good progress and that normal service will resume after sorting out the computer glitch which we hope to do as soon as possible.........

We did finally get this blog through on the evening of the 27th

....We continue our passage towards the north west clocking up another 75 miles over the 24 hour period.
Winds and conditions remain much the same. Over night we encountered a couple of ships, the second a fishing vessel that came a little too close, as we could clearly hear its engines as it passed down our starboard side.  Whoops.

This morning we have been sewing more patches on our number 2 sail. Hopefully when it is used again it will wear better than it has recently. Meanwhile we await a change in fortunes regarding the weather and are looking forward to the weekend, when it appears that the system will change.
 

Another 24 hours has passed by and we have covered just less than 80 miles over the period.

Keith Johnson( Crew -Mayotte to Beira): Many thanks for your message re the weather. You have of course now spoilt all the fun as some of us were looking forward to several weeks on a tropical island with some scantily-clad Caribbean girls and rum cocktails in hand.

Now it looks like we might have to go to the Azores instead, if your weather forecast is correct, which is a bit of a disappointment!

Joking apart we had expected to have to reach 20 degrees north before picking up some westerlies. As you say though the Labrador Low is pushing the Azores High towards us, making for a potentially earlier eastern transit towards the Azores. However we probably won't reach the required latitude until Saturday but lets hope the weather system hangs around long enough for us to get on its coat-tails. All the best, to you, family and the book!

We have had good period of easterly winds which have enabled us to make another 75 miles of progress, towards the north west and over 2100 miles from Ascension Island. The latter almost a distant memory of over a month ago now.

The cake making for Clinton's birthday didn't deliver the expected results and got converted, after the event, into an after dinner oatmeal and apple desert. Anyway everyone seemed happy enough to have a desert for a change.

Meanwhile, thanks Len and Marge Helfrich for your recent message. I think you would be proud of some of the improvisations we have made these last few days to get us out of a tricky spot or two. As we struggle on it is great to know you are following us closely- Len as you know you are a legend on board Phoenicia.
Best regards to you and Marge and to Tony and John of the East London crew.
 

Another day has passed and we have clocked up a further 75 miles of progress over the period, and finally the Azores is on the same page of the chart as our position.

That seems to indicate we must be getting closer, although the Windward Islands look pretty close too.

The wind angle has indeed improved and we have been able to steer between 345 and 350 degrees (compass) for most of the last 24 hours, giving us much better northerly progress and we are now within a few hours of reaching 11 degrees north.

Today is Clinton's birthday and we are making a cake to mark the occasion. Although he said he doesn't want to celebrate his birthday, we think he will make an exception for a piece of cake.
 

 We have had another day of steady progress, covering some 75 miles over the period.

The better wind angle that we had yesterday afternoon, soon disappeared. We are experiencing a similar phenomenon today. At some point as we head West it will become a more permanent feature.

In the meantime we continue to grapple with the challenges of the ship and the conditions. There is not much time for much else, other than the occasional bit of reading, journal writing or fishing for those that enjoy the sport- as we have about 50 large tuna that seem keen on following us and are ready volunteers to sacrifice themselves on the hook.
 

 We have had another reasonable period of progress over the last 24 hours and made 75 miles. Further good news is the Raymarine C80 unit is now back to life - the wonders of the factory reset button (not shown in the manual)!
The haul of fish continues, with a large dorado being landed this morning.
There is still much work to be done on board including sail and rigging repairs,filling empty water cans with salt water to maintain our ballast levels and pumping the bilges.

On the fresh water side we started a more severe rationing of our water two days ago. We are limiting ourselves to 20 litres per day for the 8 crew, with its use for personal washing and rinsing prohibited. This did cause some heat, sorry debate, amongst those who like to use water for other things than drinking it! So there have been a few long faces, and fewer words spoken, around following the "debate". Still the results have been impressive and it looks like we have halved the water consumption, which means we could last another 60-70 days if we get stuck somewhere in the middle of the Azores High. Right now just getting towards it would be nice.
 

 Apart from a computer failure that has caused us some disruption to our communications, progress continues. We have the computer up and running again and we have made another 90 miles over the last 24 hours. As at 1600 hours GMT we have been managing to steer a slightly better course (340 degrees compass as against 325 degrees) over the last few days. Light at the end of the tunnel?

The seas remain plentiful as far as fish stocks go and we have no difficulty in catching our daily needs of tuna.
 

 
With stronger winds and marginally better wind angle we have made over 110 miles over the past 24 hours. The ride remains err “bumpy” and we get the occasional wave across the deck or slamming into the beam of the ship. We had some strong winds overnight and some rain, although not as heavy as the rain we experienced around the equator.

Unfortunately our normally very reliable and useful Raymarine C80 hasn’t been working these last 24 hours, probably due to a connection or power problem but possibly a system problem. That means that for now we have no chart plotter, radar or AIS should we need them. However at the moment there is not much call for them being in the mid Atlantic and we have a back up GPS, so we are not looking for the sextant just yet! We are in touch with Raymarine technical support and will hopefully have it up and running again soon...hopefully we will uncover the problem in due course. Meanwhile we continue our course.
 

 We have had another 24 hours of solid progress covering another 90 miles, conditions much the same as they have been over the last few days. We are slightly anxious we are not making more progress towards the north but there isn't much we can do about it but to sail as closely to the wind as we can.
 

 We continue our exhilarating (?) sail powered by the warm North-east winds from the West African coast and are now making even faster progress, having racked up 88 miles over the past 24 hours. Although the winds themselves are not that strong and which sailors would refer to as a “force 5, fresh breeze”, it is the wave pattern that remains the problem. The waves, which are anything up to 5-6 meters, are preventing us from making a better track, which is currently 290° true. However as we move West we should gradually be able to improve upon that. Meanwhile the constant rocking motion of Phoenicia is quite tiring and the crew members are using all available time for sleeping so they are on form for watch and helming duties which are quite demanding right now.
 

Having got well and truly into the north east trade winds we have made better progress over the last 24 hours covering some 79.3 miles. Although we no longer have the rainy squalls that dominated the doldrums, the passage remains quite uncomfortable as we cross beam on to rolling waves of around 5 meters, causing Phoenicia to rock and swerve dramatically at times.We are however making progress towards the north west and we are hopeful that before the next 1000 miles is out we will get better winds and start the turn towards the north east and the Azores.
 

They say a week is a long time in politics and we can see that has been the case from what we learn of the recent General Election in the UK.

Out here we too have had a long week, with endless false dawns in terms of crossing the doldrums. The last 24 hours was no exception except that things started to change just after midnight. We got a strong sense that the north easterly winds that were pumping hard at around 15-20 knots were here to stay, along with some large Atlantic rollers with a size and force that we had not experienced before. Our little ship is rolling more now than it ever has and yet somehow it manages to keep together and ride the waves. Dawn saw the revelation of yet another split in our sail, just off centre below a recent patch. We spent most of the morning preparing for the yard and sail to come down so we could repair the sail. We rigged our trusty green storm sail, that we used to come around the Cape of Good Hope, so that it could be hoisted as soon as the main sail was down as this is no place for a ship to broached by the powerful white- crested rollers that surge across us from the starboard side. After lunch we set about the delicate operation of changing sails, as the winds had not moderated as we had hoped. Within about 30 minutes the job was complete and we were on our way again. We have though after a long week, and a week longer than expected, passed through the doldrums. Hurrah – we are finally above the latitude of 6 degrees north.
 

We have had a frustrating 24 hours with near constant wind changes and persistent showers. We have concluded that little of the wet weather gear we have is water proof except for the odd plastic rain coat. Much of our clothing is wet and that which is being washed won't dry- although it is getting a free fresh water rinse when hung out on the cabin roof.. Spirits on board remain high in spite of the fact that we made just 20.83 miles over the last 24 hours- something of a negative record even by our standards.
 

Although the weather remains wet and miserable we have made better progress over the last 24 hours due to a burst of wind from the South East which enabled us to cover 68 miles, mainly towards the north. The wind has recently changed again and is now pushing us towards the North East but that is better than being pushed too far to the West.

We have been taking an audit of our provisions and water, in light of the fact that our voyage towards the Azores may last for another 40-50 days, this being our 22nd day at sea. The bad news is we are going to run out of powdered milk, possibly jam (20 cans left), and probably gas- we have just three bottles left. The good news is that we have about 45 days supply of water, 90 packets of biscuits (we use two packets per day, one for each of the night watches) and enough chocolate bars for 2 per crew member per week. We also have Daniel's MSR multi-fuel cooker that can work off of diesel, petrol or paraffin (of which we have plenty), if the gas should run out.
So we will always be able to cook as we have plenty of staples like rice, pasta and tinned foods and there is no shortage of fish! Or tea and coffee for that matter. So the audit was positive overall and one less thing to worry about... too much.
 

 

Photo above:  Sail repairs take place on deck. From L-R Sulhan, Philip, Clinton & Daniel

Photo left: Clinton sews a patch on to cover a growing hole in the sail



The sun is out, the wind has veered to the East and we are heading to the North-west once again – and the mood on board has lightened. Over the period we made 59 miles to 1200 hours GMT. Most notable of the night watches was a Russian ship that came within less than two miles of us, crossing our bow in relatively poor visibility. A quick word on the VHF at 5.8 miles confirmed he was aware of our position, even if only on his radar to begin with. He gradually overtook us and proceeded on his way. Bread was baked over night and the first loaf of two was devoured at breakfast.

In daylight the sail looks much better for yesterday’s repairs. The fish continue to be delivered from Neptune’s locker, including 4 tuna this morning before breakfast. We pray for continued fair winds.
 

We have had a demanding 24 hours, Sailing conditions have been challenging and we have managed to make just 3 miles on our heading to the north, with 73 miles being made in total, predominantly westerly.

Over night a small split developed in our sail and not wishing for it to deteriorate further, we brought the yard down on deck and spent four hours this morning with all hands making repairs to the sail. We also made preventative repairs to stop chaffing on the yard from where it rubs against the mast- which was an area causing concern. Another concern has been the overall strength of the upper part of the mast, particularly in the light of the problems with the forestay. On re-hoisting the yard we have therefore reduced its height by about a meter, so it rides on a stronger part of the mast and lowers the overall centre of gravity of the sail.

Over the last few hours to 20:00 hours GMT we have experienced modestly better winds and have made an additional 3 miles of northerly progress!
 

We have managed 56.6 miles over the last 24 hours, mainly westwards as it has been difficult to make any progress towards the north. We have had some difficulty with the rigging and having tightened our stays yesterday, with the added tension the forestay broke shortly afterwards! We are now using a “back-up” forestay, and pondering how best to replace the stay that snapped apart. So there is not much positive news on Phoenicia at the moment. Hopefully fairer winds and better luck will return in a few days time.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Picture 1: Dirman examines the broken forestay.
Picture 2: The broken forestay on deck.
 

Rather depressingly we have made just 26.6 miles since our report yesterday.
Winds have been variable and sent us in all directions and back again towards our starting position. Overnight the morning watch was drenched for about two and a half hours as we were passed over by some heavy storm clouds. During the day we have made repairs to the rigging that was damaged on the previous night. Otherwise all fine.
 

We have had a quieter 24 hours weather wise but progress remains frustratingly slow - just another 40 miles over the last 24 hours to 1200 hours GMT. We are at least through the 4 degrees of latitude north but heading ever closer to the Caribbean Islands at the same time.
Dirman has managed to mend our smaller electric bilge pump whilst a solution for the main one remains elusive. Peter has found a large hole just below his bunk where the water is gushing in with every role of the ship. He has been busy with plastic bags ever since and has moved bunks because it "is so damp there". There is still a lot of water coming in! For all his protests and moans he has got little sympathy from the rest of the crew whose attitude seems to be that that is just Peter's hard luck. He has however managed to keep his bet (so far) on giving up smoking and hasn't touched a cigarette since leaving Ascension. Whether he can keep it going for another month or two remains to be seen.
 

 
Another image from yesterday - Peter swims out to observe the vistiting Whale Shark
 

 

Just as things were getting a little predictable and boring along comes a whale shark to brighten things up! It was a really incredible moment to see this massive blundering fish, which lives on plankton, approach Phoenicia,.

We estimate it was about 6 meters long and nearly two meters wide at its head. It looked rather ugly and just as one imagines a sea monster. It came alongside the ship very slowly and touched our starboard rudder and then circles the ship several times. Several of the crew got into the sea with goggles to get a better view of this amazing creature. The first photo shows it alongside our safety rope and the other, is a close up of its head with various pilot fish around it.

The visit lasted about 45 minutes, until it rubbed on our port rudder and then swam underneath the ship, at which point we thought better of encouraging it rub against us any more. Putting on the diesel generator seemed to cause the end of its interest in us which was something of a relief for the skipper.

In the evening we had quite a heavy rain squall but afterwards that gave way to a midnight rainbow reflecting off the moonlight, something quite rare and that few of us had seen before. We made slightly better progress over the last 24 hours and covered some 52.4 miles mainly toward the West. Our position at 1200 hrs GMT was 3°31.8 North, 25°40.5 West.
 

We continue to suffer in the doldrums and have made even less progress over the last 24 hours than yesterday, with just 27.31 miles covered. We expect the light winds to continue for several days. Time to go fishing or read that book that has been doing the rounds.

Our position at 1200 hours GMT was 03°19.98 north, 24°51.34 west.
 

We have had a frustrating 24 hours as far as the sailing is concerned. During the first part of the period we experienced light northerly winds and were being pushed slowly south, so we furled up to reduce the speed of our passage back south. Then we got slightly stronger winds and managed to get a better angle to make a west, south- westerly direction.

 

This morning we once again had light south easterly winds and were able to make modest progress to the north west. By lunchtime we had managed just 35.33 miles over the 24 hours to 1200 GMT! It seemed like we had been trapped in the doldrums for a day and at other times heading that we were heading for Guyana or somewhere else in South America. In the last few hours we have experienced a small squall that has produced some good wind that has sent us leaping at four knots to the north, sending us crashing through the 3° of latitude north.
Hurrah!

Peter and Clinton managed to harvest several excellent tuna in the early hours of the morning which were served with hot-chilli sauce and rice for lunch. The previous evening Philip made bread for the first time and by all accounts was very much enjoyed at breakfast and lunch.
 

We have had another mainly wet period with occasional gusts of winds that has enabled us to do another 55 miles over the last 24 hours.

The main success story has been with the fishing rod. Whilst we have been moving through the water at slow speeds Peter and Clinton have found quite large quantities of small dorado and yellow-fin tuna close to the surface. In all some 15 were caught yesterday and provided excellent fayre for lunch and dinner.

The other activity has been some of the more adventurous "boys" jumping off the ship and having a refreshing Atlantic swim. We have at least been trailing a large length of rope in case the wind suddenly picks from the odd squall that comes our way. In general though we look set for at least another 4 days of being subjected to the doldrums and thereafter we will face the challenge of the north-easterly winds which will take us out further into the mid Atlantic. In the meantime we never did find a tin opener and are making do with the galley knife!