Delivery Map

View Croatia Delivery in a larger map

Spencer Update 6/20 ...

Saturday 6/20/09  5:00 pm

 

Position:

36 degrees 09 minutes North

07 degrees 39 minutes West

Approx. 100 west of The Strait of Gibraltar

Hello All:

All is well here on Irishman...The smells coming out of the galley have us all waiting in  anticipation for dinner. It's crazy how fast things can change out here.  Less than 48 hours ago we had our foul weather gear on and Tropical storm force winds.  Today we are laying out on the deck sun tanning.

We are about 100 miles west of the Strait of Gibraltar.  Wind and seas have almost totally died and we are motor sailing at around 9 knots.  During our rough conditions on Thursday our engine starting making some strange noises. Kind of like it was struggling. Yesterday it actually did die on us a couple of times.  We have figured out that we obtained some very dirty fuel in the Azores.  We have filters that trap anything so it won't get into the engine but these filters are becoming clogged much faster than normal causing fuel not to flow to the engine.  The rough conditions have probably stirred up all the junk that usually settles to the bottom of the tanks. Hopefully as long as we keep these filters clean we should be fine.  

We are eating very well out here with our Italian chef Stefano.  Last night was had roasted chicken and potatoes.  Lunch today was stuffed portbello mushrooms and a nice salad.  Of course Harold and I have plenty of hot sauce on board that we put on almost everything.... usually without insulting the chef.  

The ship traffic has increased tremendously as we approach the Strait of Gibraltar. Tonight is going to be a busy night watching the radar and avoiding these hudge cargo ships.

For our Trivia question on 6/17/09,  the winner is Michael Roach in Arizona that correctly defined the "Horse Lattitudes".  Rob in St. Thomas was disqualified for being way smarter than anybody else I know.....  Just kidding ... Rob, you win a T-shirt as well.  As for Michael Roach, I think I still have a St. Louis Cardinals World Series Championship shirt in my closet for you!!!

Trivia Question #2:

The northern county of Prekmura in Croatia is famous or kown for what?

That's all for now on Irishman.......

Spencer

Spencer Update 6/18 ... Three Sheets to the Wind!

Thursday, 6/18/09

6:00pm position:  

36 deg. 56 min. North,  

15 deg. 27 min. west

Is was nice to get some emails out here.  Thank you very much.

10:00am

This morning wind and seas started increasing.   Mid day we had gusts at around 30 mph and seas at 6 to 8 feet.  Last night before dark we had reefed or shortened our mainsail down about 20%.  Just now we took down the forwad most sail, the  big jib and and put up the smaller "stay sail" so we wouldn't be over powered.

1:45pm

Winds gusting to 36 mph.  We're plowijng thru the seas which are building- 8 to 10 feet.  It's getting pretty difficult to move around

the boat.

3:00pm

We have reefed the mainsail down to about 50% and dropped the mizzen sail (one in the back).  Wind and seas continuing to build.

4:00pm

Winds are up to 42 knots or over 50 mph.  We have dropped the forward staysail and are sailing with double reefed mainsail alone.

4:30

It can't get too much worse than this....  We have lightning and winds up to 60 mph.   Crazy how it can go from beautiful to tropical storm force winds in less than 24 hours.

5:00 pm

Looks like the worst is over... Everybody is a little wet an cold but in a smaller more exposed boat it could of been muuch worse.

What a crazy day.....

Stefano made some butternut squash soup for dinner with fresh baked bread. We are all a little cold and wet.   It was very good. (not quite as good as Victoria's though!)

Then to Victoria on Friday 6/19/09:  

It was a crazy day yesterday.....  And then on top of all that in the middle of the night our engine died as the winds were heading us and dying.   We lost several hours with the engine down and trying to figure things out.   Looks like we probably got bad fuel in the Azores and it's clogging up the filters.  All is well this morning as I write this (Friday, 6/19/09).

Horse Latitudes

(Victoria posting for Spencer)  To answer Spencer's question, our friend Rob writes, according to Wikipedia ...

The term horse latitudes supposedly originates from the days when Spanish sailing vessels transported horses to the West Indies. Ships would often become becalmed in mid-ocean in this latitude, thus severely prolonging the voyage; the resulting water shortages would make it necessary for crews to throw their horses overboard.

On the other hand, the term might be derived from the "dead horse"ritual, a practice in which the seaman would parade a straw-stuffed effigy of a horse around the deck before throwing it overboard. Seamen were often paid partly in advance before a long voyage (see Beating a dead horse),and the "dead horse" was this period of time (usually a month or two).  The ceremony was to celebrate having worked off the "dead horse" debt.  As European west bound shipping would reach the subtropics at about the time the "dead horse" was worked off, the region became associated with the ceremony.

I've also edited the Hurricane Spencer Tracking Chart ...

Click Here to access the Tracking Chart

Trip Summary & We can get eMail

(Victoria posting ... I received this email from Spencer today)

Update: 6/17/09 Wednesday 1:35 am
Position:
37 degrees 47 minutes North
23 degrees 01 minute West
664 miles west of the Strait of Gibraltar

Hello:
We finally have an email link here on Irishman!!!!!!!!!!!!
IRISHMAN1@skyfile.com ("spencer" in the subject line)

Quick Review:
Left St. Martin on 6/2/09 (Tuesday). We had a few days of very good sailing weather. As we got further north the wind started to die. They call this area out in the Atlantic the "Horse Lattitudes". Not sure why, but the first person to find out and email me back wins a
T-shirt!!!!!!!! It was dead calm out here for a few days. Not even a ripple on the water on June 6th. We caught 3 Tuna and 1 Mahi Mahi that were prepared wonderfully by Stefano our chef. The freshest tuna sushi every! 

There are six of us on board so we have a 2 hour watch schedule. Each person is on watch for two hours and then on Standby for another 2 hours in case the watch person needs any assistance. Of course everybody is up and ready in case more help is needed. We have an autopilot so we don't have to self steer the boat. It's pretty easy.  It's all computerized so we just keep an eye on the wind, when there is wind, and adjust sails when needed. Other than that we monitor all the gauges. We have a generator running and usually the main engine to help keep our speed up when the wind isn't strong enough. 

Usually the biggest choice to make during watch is which ipod to plug into the dock and what songs to listen to. We have a big screen TV down below and tons of movies. Everyone of course has tons of reading material as well. I have brought with me all my home movies from the past 10 years.  I am in the process of importing them all into my computer and editing them down. It's been great watching them as I import them. 

So back to day to day life on board.... I have the 12 noon to 2 pm watch, then standby watch from 2pm to 4pm. Then I'm back on at 12 midnight to 2am and standby from 2am to 4am. I've usually been getting 3 to 4 hours of sleep after dinner before my midnight watch and then sleeping from 4am till 8:30am. Everybody falls into their routine and it has worked well with no conflicts. We saw the lights of the Azores around midnight on Saturday June 13, 2009. We finally got anchored around 4am local time.

We had a great but short visit in the Azores. We were in the town of Horta on the island of Faial. It's a Portuguese island but most people speak English. None of us slept on Saturday night as we were approaching the island. We anchored out Saturday morning and waited to get on the fuel dock which didn't happen untill about 1:30 in the afternoon. We got the boat cleaned up, had a few drinks and went out to dinner. Everybody got some much needed sleep. Sunday Morning I got up and ran 5 miles. It was a great way to explore a new place. We arranged to rent a couple of cars and went on an island tour mid-day. It was great. I hope to post some video and pictures when we get to Palma which should be on Monday.

Right now we have little to no wind so we are motoring east at around 9.5 knots. In case you didn't know a knot is about 1.2 miles per hour. So 9.5 knots is about 11.4 miles per hour. We saw a very large school of dolphins yesterday. There must of been over a hunderd of then swimming and playing along the boat. Hopefully we got some good pictures.

Well that's it for now on Irishman.

Here's our email address:

IRISHMAN1@skyfile.com

Just put "Spencer" in the subject line and I should get it. No pictures
or attachments please.

I'll hopefully be able to check my regular email
(spencer@sailhappyhour.com) sometime around Monday...

Please forward this to anybody that you think might be interested.

Regards,

Spencer

Irishman video #1 posted

Hello all
We are leaving the Azores and heading for the Strait of Gibralter and on to Palma, Spain.....

Here is the link for the first video..... hope everyone can view it....

Click Here For Irishman Atlantic Passage Video - Part 1

(Victoria Edit ...) Be patient .. it's a 10 minute video, so it may take some time to load in your browser. Go have dinner, mix a cocktail, and come back. It took mine over an hour to load, before I could watch it without interruption .... Awesome photography & terrific crew bios ...

June 14, 2009- Spencer's update from Irishman

All is well with Irishman. We are in Horta on the island of in the Azores. We have traveled approximately 2500 miles. We are just getting ready to leave for the Strait of Gibralter and onto Palma in Spain. I think our boats email is up and running.....I will post the new email address soon. If you do email please do not include pictures or attachments. We are using a satellite connection so text only says the boss.

The Azores

Update from Shirley

(Victoria Posting ...) I heard from Captain Harold's wife Shirley by email last night, and she wrote:

"Hi Victoria! I heard from Harold today. They are having a great trip. Very little wind and uneventful... unless you count home-made cannelloni and tiramisu eventful! They are enjoying the new chef. As I'm sure you know, internet is down. They expect to be in the Azores on Saturday where they will refuel before continuing on to Palma and then to Dubrovnik. I hope you are doing well. All the best, Shirley."

Hopefully Spencer doesn't like the new chef's cooking better than mine! While Spencer's not a practicing vegetarian, since I cook most of the family meals, he doesn't eat much animal protein at all. Wonder how his digestive system is doing ... I'm happy at least the chef is Italian, so he might be getting food other than beef wellington and chicken cordon blu. Without the ability to run, I'm sure he'll have a few pounds to work off when he gets home! He said he would probably return to his yoga practice while on board to stay loosened up. He's been fighting some type of a muscle pull in the hernia area, so hopefully the rest will do him good, as he just couldn't seem to go a week without "a light jog" against doctor's orders.

Hopefully I'll hear from Spencer on Saturday so I can update with a first hand account. I wonder if the Azore's have a 3G network for his iPhone?

So what do those coordinates mean anyhow?

(Victoria posting ...) Got a call from Bill & Teri who asked for a bit of help deciphering Spencer's coordinates.  For those of you who don't regularly look at a map to track hurricanes (or boats), I've posted a Hurricane Spencer Tracking Chart out on the web, which I'll update as he calls in.  I'm not sure what the minutes mean, but I'm sure this makes sense to the sailors out there ;-)  

Click Here to access the Tracking Chart

St. Martin is 18.2N63.1W

Spencer today is at 29N55W 

The Azores are 38N28W
The Canary Islands are 28N15W
Gibraltar is 36N6W
Croatia is in the Eastern Hemisphere, 45N15E

 

Victoria got a call from Spencer!

(Victoria posting ...) To my surprise, I got a phone call from Spencer this morning around 8:45AM.  It's unbelievable that a boat in the middle of the ocean can make phone calls at the mere cost of $1.50 per minute!  We had a nice 10 minute chat.  

He was calling to say that the Irishman email is down for some reason ... They are working on it, but not certain how quickly it will be fixed.  Dave McDermott had just emailed me to say that the emails were bouncing, and I was just starting to look into it when Spencer called.  He must have been reading our minds.

He asked me to post their coordinates, which are:

29 degrees, 58 minutes North

55 degrees, 57 minutes West

They are motor sailing along at 10 knots, and are making about 240 miles per day.  He said that the seas were fairly rough the first few days, but are now just as flat as a lake.  He said it's beautiful, as they are just surrounded by serene and sunny waters.  I wonder if that's how Christopher Columbus must have felt on his Journey?  I suppose the earth might appear flat from that perspective.

He caught a cold from Harold, but is on the upswing.  He had taken along some old videos, and has been spending time importing them onto his new computer into iMovie.  So he actually has me and Apache along for the ride (and Jimmy Cat too!).  It'll be fun to see those videos when he gets home.

He said he'll try to call again, to keep us all posted. Lots of love to all.

A Few More Photos

Here's a few more pictures before we get out of regular internet range.

This is the full crew on the trip....  (but not the little girl in pink)

Left to right:     Stefano (chef),  Richard  (I know him from living in St. Thomas years ago),  Kirsty (full time first mate),  Dean  (Newport area and very experienced sailor),  Spencer,  Captain Harold.

Me at the top of the Mast......about 115 feet up....fixing some lines and lights.

Harold on the Stern

Our fearless leader....Captain Harold Moyer!!

Finally leaving St. Martin.....

I flew from St. Thomas to St. Martin last Thursday (5/28).   We were supposed to leave on Saturday but we had some mechanical issues that are now fixed.  The weather looks pretty good and we are heading towards the Azores which is about 2500 miles.