Final Blog?

Once again, although for the final time probably, I sit here in the nav station wondering what to write. A strange glitch in the technology means that yesterday's e-mail message is not saved in the drafts folder and is not
in the sent items folder. As a result I'm not sure what I've already said. The only real thing of real importance, other than that we are safe and well, was communicating the drinks round (I reiterate, 7 pints of something
wet and 4 posh drinks).

We motored for much of yesterday (Thursday) but got the sails up in the later part of the day. We were treated to a technicolour sunset as we neared the last (or some might say first) county in Britain. Jeff's watch (Keith W
and myself) came on at 9.00 pm taking over from the Skipper (with Theo, Keith and Dave). It was a cold dark watch and, joined by Teatime, we inched our way north easterly. The dark night was punctuated be the navigation lights of various passing vessels who chugged off to the taffic separation lanes. Findlay appeared at midnight, in his trademark cheerful fashion, to take the helm. With Teatime he pushed us forward to the English coast. They managed to get up in towards Mounts Bay under the gaze of the three giant gatekeepers, the lighthouses of Wolf Rock, Lands End and Lizard Point.

The next watch began the long motor east making some headway with the favourable turning tide. Jeff's watch, reappeared at 6.00, this time with Axel who had been on Mother watch with Stephen. Lizard point lighthouse
winked good morning to us and we continued to progress up the Channel passing Falmouth by the later stages of our watch.

Glancing up at the instruments it is 10.55 am and we are now at 50'' 10' N 004'' 41' W. The computer estimates 120 miles to the Needles, about 25 hours at the current speed. The Skipper has just popped in and said that northerly winds are forecast and we might get sailing later in the day.

Now, on to the popular subject of the Juno diet. Axel and Stephen were on mother yesterday. I think I mentioned their breakfast special. This was followed up by three types of pasta (tricolori I think is the term) at lunch. The evening unfolded well with an amuse bouche which has been labelled 'devils on a Farr 65' (dates, walnut and brie on toast). Dinner was a Morrocan style vegetable curry. This was followed by a Heston Blumenthal style experimental pudding, involving cranberry jelly and condensed milk; truly invntive!

The Yachtmaster Ocean candidates are mother today. They promise and all you can eat buffet, that is anything left on the boat can now be eaten. I must say their scrambled eggs and ham this morning was very
well received.

Last night we gathered on the decks at sunset and formed a circle holding hands. Amongst the group we shared our experiences and talked openly about how much we love and miss our wives and girlfriends. Not really, Juno is a boat for the man's man (i.e. the seat is always left up). But seriously, we will all be pleased to meet up with wives and sweethearts, although it might be better if both don't arrive at the same time in Portsmouth! (I've finally managed to get my favourite music hall gag into the blog). Also, on the subject of the heart... This may seem a little cryptic but Teatime is having a bar-b-que on the 10th call him if you want to come ;-)

So, our adventure is nearly over. 'On looking at an hour glass: To our eyes, it appears that the sand runs out only at the end and, until it does, it is not worth thinking about' (Death in Venice). There is many a slip betwix cup and lip, but we are nearly home now. It is probably safe to say that 2009 is clearly going to be a year to remember. If anyone is thinking of doing a transatlantic crossing I would say, if you've got the inclination, the time, and sufficient pocket money to spare then do it.

See you tomorrow hopefully. VG.

Fantastic trip and thanks for your messgaes - looking forward to seeing you all soon. Love Findlay

Once again I'm at the navigation station computer

Faced with a blank screen, I always sit here wondering what would be of interest to the folks at home. I never quite know how much technical sailing information to include or how much to focus on life aboard. Looking over the blogs I realise that it might seem that we are (or I am) obsessed with food and once again I start with a report on the Juno diet.

Stephen was in charge of breakfast and took full advantage of the flat calm conditions. He deviated from the menu to surprise us with toasted bacon and egg sandwiches! The magnitude of the appreciation cannot be measured on the conventional gratitude scales. The two Keiths turned out an impressive Bolognese last night with plenty for seconds. Also, the elaborate game of hide the tea bags' has ended and normal hot beverage services have been resumed.

The crew have been engaged in fantasies relating to that first alcoholic drink ashore. Findlay, Teatime, Keith, Dave and Jay - a pint of Stella; Stephen and Vernon -a pint of real ale; Jim - rum and coke; Axel - gin and tonic; Theo - a glass of Cabernet; Keith (W) - a glass of Rioja. So in short... If, as we come alongside, anyone can sort out seven pints of anything wet and four fruit-based drinks the Juno boys will be over the moon. We are nothing if not easy to please.

We tacked away from our previous bearing sometime in the night, I was already asleep but heard the familiar sounds above. The engine must have been switched on some time after. Jay, Axel and I stood the 6.00pm - 9.00pm watch. This is my favourite pattern because it is followed by 3.00am - 6.00am. This means that you get to see sunset and then sunrise. When we came back on watch we could see two trawlers both in the distance, identified by their lights (green over white). We passed quietly to the east of them. These were the first vessels our watch had seen since leaving the Azores.

When our watch finished I came down to look at the chart. The North Atlantic Ocean chart had been replaced by the more detailed Western Approaches to the English Channel. chart. At 0644 (local time) we had run 1120 miles from Horta and were at 49'' 08' N 008'' 33' W, approximately 125 miles South West of Land's End. The computer estimates another forty three hours to the Needles at the current speed.

The winds are still light and the engine is on. Findlay has very cleverly rigged up an autopilot, by lashing the wheels together with some spare rope. We plan to get some cleaning done while it is still flat and calm. VG.

The sea has turned from atlantic blue ...

... to a familiar green reminiscent of childhood seaside holidays. This morning's game of eye-spy was quite short. We experimented with banning things on deck and the game went as follows. 'Eye spy with my little eye, something begining with S?' Yes sea was followed by S for sky and then C for cloud, and then the game ended.

Life continues at 45 degrees. Touch typing, along with most other tasks with the exception of falling over, remains a challene. We are knocking out about 8 knots and sailing up at about 30 degrees on a heading of about 048 degrees (I still can't find the wee superscript zero for degrees on this keyboard).

Taking a peek at the chart we are about parallel with with St Nazair which lies at the estuary of the Loire.

On our watch there has been some discussion of turning east and having a night in France on the way home. We suspect that a case of mediocre claret would be just the vehicle to get us through the remainder of our cheese (we might be into the last 10 kilos now). We've not had a word with the skipper yet however.

On the subject of catering, we are dangerously low on tea bags. The all day breakfast remains popular on Juno. Branflakes and UHT milk are available on a 24hr basis. Dave and I baked a date sponge cake yesterday which worked out okay. The two Keiths are Mother watch today and they will re-interpreting tuna melts this lunchtime.

The aspirant Yacht Masters (Ocean) are busy. The sextant appeared from its mahogony case early this morning. The sun is clearly visible and the sky is relatively free of clouds. Today they are in with a good chance of getting

their sun sights.

More later. VG.

Day four since leaving Horta

and spirits are high on the Juno bus. Now less than 800 miles to
Portsmouth. The sea is calm and the wind good as Findley and Theo
take their sights.

As mentioned previously Steve has joined Tea-time and Findley on watch
but it is widely agreed that he is far too good a singer to join the
the two founder members of the tone deafers.

Vernon usualy likes to quote someone famous about now but instead here
is the professors underwear theory. ' If you put on your underwear the
correct way round for 1 day. Then turn them inside out and wear them
for 2 days and then turn them the correct way round and wear them for
4 days and continue doing this as necesary. Then you will always be
changing into slightly cleaner underwear.' (Vernon Gayle et al)

Happy birthday T_times mum, Were all singing for you and having a cake
on your behalf. A big mwah from txx Happy wedding anniversary - Mr &
Mrs Gayle Snr.

Hi all - Things going great so far - thanks a milion for your messages
and love to Anne, Fiona and wee Fin. Well done Fiona on your Uni Exam
result. Fantastic! Love Findlay xxx.I haven't been singing too much -
honest. Tim, this is definitely a "must do" trip - and I'm keeping
nice and warm. Toby - hope the exams go well and that Thomas is
sound.Hope all is well in Jersey. Love to all - Steve

Gei sou agapi mou

Mou leipes poly, sas pethimisa kai ta skylkia olous toso poly. Eimai
poly kala. Ypologizo na eimai stin Anglia Savato i Kiriaki to poly.
Molis to thlefono mporei na piasei sima tha soy tilefoniso.

Filakia polla, sa agapo polu

Theodoros

Crashing along at about 10 knots

with a reef in we are making progress. We have just dropped to within a 1,000 miles to go. A thread with Lord Nelson, the greatest British seaman, runs through the trip. We started in English Harbour Antigua, where he commanded the dockyard and we will end up at Gunwharf in the shadow of HMS VICTORY.

Taking a look at the chart for most of the day we have been west of shipping forecast area Trafalgar. Introduced in 1956 this area extends from Southern Portugal to north-west Africa. It is the only region for which the forecast is only broadcast once a day (at 0048 hours). Why not tune into Radio 4 (Long Wave) at beadtime tonight. At the appointed time a soothing voice will say 'and now before the shipping forecast here's Sailing By'. For those of you that don't know Ronald Binge's lilting tune, you will probably find it the most sophorythic piece of music ever.

I doubt that you'll manage to stay awake for the forecast. But before sleep claims you, spare a thought for the Juno boys. The midnight watch (our time) will be getting into wet oilskinks, the 9.00-12.00 guys will be up on deck waiting to get below and get dry, and hopefully the kettle will be singing. VG

On our last night we went out smelling of Diesel

Admittedly most of the Juno boys have spent less time in the gym than the fella with the ripped jeans in the Diesel cologne advert, however the effect was the same. Men stepped aside and women fainted. Our fuel tanks are nice and clean though.

We are back at sea now and settling into a new watch system. Typing here in the navigation station is like using a laptop on a roller coaster. I suspect that the blogs will get shorter again. Also, we have no spoll chooker so the

written quality can vary.

The good news is that Findley passed his exam with flying colours. Theo joins him for the practical, and they will be examined in Portsmouth when we get in.

Axel has slotted into Jeff's watch and Theo joins the Skipper. Stephen (the Doc) is a keen classical singer so has been assigned to voice coach Findley and Teatime. Teatime incidentally is the cleverest sailor and best kisser in

all Cheshire (he asked me to subtly boost him up here in the blog because a young female acquaintance might be reading).

At the moment we are ripping along at 10 knots on a bearing of 70 degrees.

The wind is gusting about 18 knots and we've got a reef in. Juno is in her orthodox fleet position. This has allowed us plenty of time to watch the dolphins, a couple of whales and a shark. More later. VG

Returning to Blighty

Some new faces are joining Juno on leg two, and last evening we were pleased to welcome Stephen and Axel onboard. Some of our victuals have arrived and we are setting about stowing produce and organising life below deck. Geoff is currently at the supermarket purchasing some last minute items.

It now feels like we have been here for a fair period of time. It was Teatime's birthday during the week and we managed to locate a cake and twenty comedy candles (we are all more than a little impressed that at his age he is on Atlantic crossing number five). The other happy news is that Team Diana skipper Dave "Waddo" Watson got engaged at the weekend when his girlfriend came out to visit. The soon to be Mrs Waddo slipped away home on Monday but in their honour the combined Ondeck crews managed to hold a barbecue on the pontoon.

In my view the highlight of last evening was not the Champion's League Final but a public lecture that Stokey Woodhall gave in Horta. Stokey distilled thirty years of navigation at sea into thirty minutes, through a series of insightful illustrations and witty anecdotes. The 'take home' message, as our American cousins would say, is 'you are never really lost as long as you know where you started from'.

Amongst other things Stokey also introduced us to a handy little star called Minitaka. It is one of the stars that makes up Orion's belt (Orion is the hunter and is large and conspicuous in the night sky). The great utility of Minitaka is that it rises due east and sets due west and therefore allows the navigator to find the main cardinal points of the compass. Stokey also explained how, using a little computation, one can tell the time using the Plough (which is also known as Ursa Major, the Great Bear, or the Big Dipper). But most memorably he demonstrated how to direction find with a radio and a frying! This was a complete revelation to the assembled audience.

Another revelation is that the gin in Pete's is Gordons. Teatime told us this but we refused to believe him until we saw the barman pouring it from the familiar bottle. Gin lays at the heart of a few drinking controversies. My favourite story, although I suspect it is apocryphal, goes as follows. During the war a number of Fleet Air Arm aircrews had been shot down and subsequently encountered serious survival situations at sea in very remote locations. The Admiralty was reviewing what to put in the survival kits and widely canvassed opions from Naval personnel. One bright spark suggested that a they should be equipped with two minitures, one of gin and another of vermouth. This was because in his experience, everytime he attempted to mix a martini someone popped up from nowhere to tell him that he was doing it all wrong. Come to think of it mysteriously there was a fellow who looked like a superannuated Lord Lucan in the bar the other night.

I lay on my bunk last night thinking of Blighty. Then I remembered the strange origin on this term. At home I have a copy of Hobson-Jobson. This is the glossary of colloquial Anglo-Indian words and phrases. On a winter evening, with sufficiently unentertaining t.v., many an amusing hour can be spent flicking through Hobson-Jobson. I recommend it, and at the moment there are 38 copies from as little as a penny on Amazon. As far as my memory goes, the word Blighty means foreign. It came to be used in British India to connote things that had been brough in from Britain. For example soda water was known as Blighty pani - foreign water, and so on. Well, on that note back to Blighty it is.

VG