Monday, November 24, 200828 34.050N, 66 27.577WHello from the high seas!  Marnie here.After yesterday’s rundown by the numbers, today I’ll just include tidbits of information as I think of them.Food: While we were working so hard to sail the boat, all so cold and exhausted, and bouncing and rocking and rolling, we ate our 3 one pot meals. Then, when we learned we would have a big low form on top of us, Danielle and I made lots of ham sandwiches for easy eating. Along with yogurt and fruit we were well sustained. But best of all for our moral, as well as our stomachs, was the fresh baked goods sent along by Michelle Pages (and family), Nikki Jacobsen, and Danielle’s friend Kathy: pumpkin bread, brownies and chocolate chip cookies. Thank you! Thank you, and thank you again! Once things settled down yesterday (it’s only blowing 25-30 with waves down to 8′-10′), we have begun to eat proper meals. Last night Danielle prepared the most wonderful pork tenderloin with a spicy Caribbean sauce, and today she turned leftover ham sandwiches into savory bread pudding topped with salad. She has prepared a pear compote to go over ice cream for Jake to serve with his lasagna tonight. Wow! Is it ever nice to have a professional chef aboard! Now don’t you wish you were here?Baths: Were had by (almost all). The brave men all bathed and showered on the back deck and came out glowing. The air temperature is 72 and water temperature is 75, but given the 25 knot north wind, Danielle and I both opted for the indoor shower. Perhaps tomorrow for the saltwater bathtub on the back deck. My feeling is that if I have to wear foulies on watch, I’m not ready to wear my swim suit on the back deck.Jake here:Sailing: Avalanche has been very impressive so far. She has more than delivered in the rough weather, keeping us all safe while she took on the mighty waves. As you can see from Danielle’s photo on the site, she faught a valiant battle! The picture is what we call a gutter wave. It came into the boat from the low side, usually caused by Avalanche’s rolling off a wave. In the shot, the wind has subsided to 40-45 knots and we had up a partial staysail and a small main. We have a preventer on the boom to keep it in place in a case like this, but we did not have it as tight as we should have, hence the mainsheet is a little loose. This wave soaked Peter who was on watch on the low side and tossed Marnie from her bunk! And Avalanche stood tall to them all.As awsome as this shot is, a high side blaster is much worse. In this case a breaking wave crashes over the high side. These waves have much more force and toss the crew around, floating in the wave if it is big enough. And it was—several times! The wave that did the most damage broke over the aft section of the boat while I was on watch. It came on board about 3 feet above the deck. We had canvas lee cloths up to keep the splash off the crew and the wave exploded a hole in the canvas. Unfortunately the canvas held long enough to break one stanchion and seriously bend another, and swept away our Avalanche life ring as well ( we just hope whoever finds it doesn’t worry about us). The wave also slammed into the dodger, but as a true testament to its design, it took the pounding intact. I was sitting in the steering cockpit on the low side as the wave exploded into the cockpit. It was over my head slamming my body back into the voyaging cushions and then floating me up off my seat! I was able to grab one of the handholds nearby and ended up with no damage, soaked from head to toe, with one hell of a sea story. I, like all of the crew throughout this whole ordeal, wore a teathered life jacket so I knew I would stay with the boat.It was really exciting to experience this impressive statement by Mother Nature, but I was very confident in Avalanche’s ability to weather the storm.All the best from the crew of Avalanche eagerly anticipating a bright sunny day with warm breezes and a bath on the back deck.

31 29.437 N 68 59.128W
November 23, 2008

Good Morning Everybody!

Let’s talk about numbers!  Number of days out of Jamestown:4; number of days we’ve had to wear foul weather gear and winter layers: 4;number of miles traveled: 640; number of miles to go to Antigua: 935.

Wind velocity Wed, Thurs & Friday until 4PM:  20-35 knots; wind velocity as low hit Friday afternoon: 52 knots; highest wind velocity recorded:  60 knots; highest constant velocity 55 knots; length of regular intervals over 50 knots:  5 min;  fastest speed  over ground with postage stamp mainsail recorded:   12.2 knots; length of time average wind velocity exceeded 45 knots: 12 hours.

Number of waves that broke onto boat and filled cockpit:  20;  number of waves that have broken onto boat and filled cockpit in all 20 previous trips combined:  3; number of photographs taken of waves:  we’ll let you know; number of waves surfed with postage stamp mainsail:  hundreds; average wave height: 15′; wave height resulting from harmonic interference:  25′;  height of waves in the middle of the night:  higher than the eye can see!  Number of times boom was in the water:  4.

Number of weather cloths torn asunder:  1; number of stanchions bent or broken:2;  number of autopilot remotes drowned: 1;  number of soaking wet sox with no where to dry: 24;  number of times wet sox had to be put back on:  10;  number of drenched and redrenched men:4;  number of soaked women:1.  (I wasn’t about to go out there.) Number of showers taken as yet:  0!

Don’t you wish you were here?

Number of pods of dolphin seen on first watch out of Jamestown:3;  number of flying fish:  30;  number of purple finches on board:  1;  number of hours Pierre lost to seasickness:  36;  number of stugeron tablets (anti-seasickness medication) ingested by crew:45.

Number of people needed to diagnose, supervise and repair issues with heads and head holding tanks:  6, number with crossed legs:  4.  Number of paper towels needed for clean up:  whole roll;  number of times white bucket has been disinfected:  3.

As for the fishing contest, stay tuned.  We haven’t set up the rods yet.  Number of rods that flew out of the rod holder:  1.

That should give you an idea of why you haven’t heard much from us. We’ve been having a wild time out here.  Additionally, unfortunately, number of blogs missent to the wrong site: 2.

All the best from the adventurous, if slightly aromatic crew, of Avalanche.

Good Morning,

We’ve had a stormy night, but the boat is great and holding up just fine with a tiny scrap of mainsail rolled out.  The entire crew is working hard, sharing the load, and making our way to better weather.  It’s very difficult to write because we’re using the computer for navigation & weather, and the keyboard slides all over.  Pierre is feeling 100%, after a day of seasickness.
We’ll write again as soon as the weather settles with all the details.

All the best from avalanche at 34 10N 69 24W

November 21

Position 36 04.632 N 69 38.730 W
We have experienced sat com problems.  Just now fixed.  All is well.  The Rookie is much better.  More to follow tonight or early tomorrow.

Jake

Normally I’m the cool, laid back guy in this family…  But no word from the boat for almost 48 hours had me a little concerned.  I was wondering what was going on that I hadn’t heard from them.  So what do you do when your own parents aren’t “checking in” with you?  Ground them?  Call their cell phone?  ….  So I emailed them (never a fast solution), called the sat phone with no answer, then went to the next obvious step:  calling Herb! He’s been mentioned many times before on the blog and he’s the boat’s weatherman. I dropped him an email this morning and he’s been in contact with them all along:

Hi Ben.
I had contact this morning at 1400Z with Marnie and Jake at 34:07N, 69:24W, still under heavy weather with strong winds from the NW and large sea over night, now squally…

On Thurs at 2030Z they were at 38:41N, 70:48W in NW 20 -25kt and gusty wind though out the day
Friday was a better day and at 36:01N, 69:34W (2030Z) they had moderate conditions as they had crossed the Gulf stream, with squalls starting to develop as avalanche was getting ready for an approaching cell to pass close and east of them within a few hours as it tracked NE at 30 kts..

All is well, except one autopilot is not working anymore. Conditions will be improving later today. They will stop in Bermuda for a rest, and send a report as soon as condition settle down.

Best Regards

No, that doesn’t sound like fun, but they’ve been in worse. Herb’s awesome as usual, both for the boat regarding weather, and now for me to know what’s going on. Sorry if this all sounds a bit dramatic. Rest assured they’re fine and boat has seen worse.  They just try to avoid it whenever possible.  Be sure to click the waypoint links above or location page at top to see where they are.

Also, I’ve just received an email from M&D saying similar thoughts.  The weather isn’t ideal, but they’re fine.  With one autopilot down and large seas they’re hand steering a lot.   They tried to send a blog post Friday, but for some reason it didn’t make it through.