Exciting final race on day 8

Woke up this morning to sun, which soon turned into drizzle with a rising wind. We didn't need to sail today as we'd already secured 2nd place overall, but we made the decision to go out anyway. Start was on the Royal Yacht Squadron line at 1120, but we were out by 1030 to watch the class zero start. With the wind gusting up to 24 knots the first few starts were exciting to watch, even though a lot of boats were already packing up, so didn't bother coming out. By our start a heavy rain had set in and the wind was consistently 20 knots, gusting 25. We had a great start, beating West down to the first mark, staying ahead of Amey Love Shack, and soon catching up to the leader. 5 marks later we were head to head with Amey Love Shack at a bear-away mark, with a very close rounding. We got the spinnaker up, running neck and neck with Amey Love Shack with the wind gusting up to 35 knots, then after several rolls, we broached severely, with the yacht tipping almost completely horizontal, and completely submerging Greg, the Navigator, who was on the rail at the time underwater, we then crash jibed and lost the spinnaker sheets. With the spinnaker flying out in front of us and no way of getting it down, we had to send James up the mast in a sling to attach a line to the top of the spinnaker halyard. By the time we'd got James back down, and retrieved the spinnaker we'd been overtaken by the top 5 boats and exhausted ourselves, so decided to call it a day and retire. Seems like we weren't the only ones with problems as there were quite a few yachts with broken masts and tattered sails in the marinas when we got in.
Because of the retirement today we ended up with 61 points overall, retaining second place. Off to the prize giving tonight to pick up our trophy!

Another close race on day 7

Woke up this morning to a gray overcast day and a light rain. We were the second class to start, so had to be on the water by 0920 for a 1020 royal yacht squadron start. There was a lot of close maneuvering at the start, but we came out 1st and led the way up the shore. Unfortunately a bad asymmetric spinnaker call on a leg that was just slightly too tight meant we dropped 7 places, which we struggled to make back up. It was a very short race, at just under 2 hours, which didn't help us, and we crossed the line in third place behind Incognito and Amey Love Shack, just too far behind to beat then on corrected time. This gives us 18 points overall going into the last race, and a guaranteed 2nd place.

photos

Fine day and goods finish on day 6

Day 6 started off nice and sunny with a decent 10-15 knot breeze. The start was on the Squadron line at 1120, so a fairly late start, although we were close getting there because the traveller had to be rebuilt about getting it re welded last night due to some cracks appearing in the metal. We got it done though, and had a pretty good start. 1st leg was a beat up the shore out of the tide, keeping in as close as possible to the land... at one point our depth read 0.1m under the keel! We managed to keep very close in, and held off all the competition, including Amey Love Shack to get round the 1st mark in the lead. We held onto that lead for the rest of the race, building it slowly on the run down to the final mark rounding, and crossed the line over 90 seconds in front of Amey Love Shack on the water, and almost 5 minutes ahead of them on corrected time, and 0ver 7 minutes in front of Beachwood Homes! This puts us at 15 points overall, and 2nd place in our class.

Disapointing day 5

Woke up on day 5 to a very flat Solent, with very little wind. Start was by committee boat out by Portsmouth again, so we had an early start, but the race was postponed due to the lack of wind. Sat around on the water for a couple of hours while the committee moved the line around to try and get a good start line downwind, but the wind kept changing. Eventually we started about 1430, but got caught up in the middle of the fleet over the line, and had to battle up. Some very good jibe mark roundings got us up the fleet, but we just couldn't get close to the race leaders and came in a disappointing 7th. This leaves us with 14 points and joint 2nd overall with Beachwood Homes on the same points, and Amey Loveshack leading the class.

Despite the dissapointing racing we did enjoy some good apre-sail, with a cocktail party at the Royal Yacht Squadron, then a Beneteau 40.7 class party at the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club.

2nd place from a slow start on day 4

Not a nice start today... cold, wet and not much wind from the South. Start was postponed by 10 minutes while they waited for some wind to fill in. Start wasn't great, 11th overland, but as the wind came in and got up to a fairly steady 15-19 knots we started to overtake the boats ahead. By the final mark we were up to 6th place, but then Beachwood Homes and Incognito got into fight for the places, dragging in the other boats, we sailed clear to come over the line in second behind Amey Loveshack. No sails destroyed today, so a pretty good day all round! We're still leading the class by 1 point, with a total of 7 points overall. We're also 7th overall in Black Group, (the ~500 boats in the to 20 classes).

1st in another very close race!

A very late start today on a committee boat line down near Portsmouth. It was scheduled for 1150, but was delayed until 1215 after two of the previous classes had to be recalled due to boats over the line. We got an OK start, but got caught up with a pack of boats and had to fight for a position with the first 7 boats for most of the race. Winds were 20 knots, gusting 25 to 30 at times, with some nasty waves when the tide turned. Unfortunately the number 3 jib ripped on the penultimate beat down towards Cowes, and we had to do a change to the smaller number 4 while racing towards the shore. We then pulled up the fractional kite after rounding the mark, and it blew when one of the tapes at the top separated, ripping it end to end. Two £2000 sails totaled in less than 30 minutes! But we managed to get the asymmetric spinnaker up without loosing too much time, crossing the line in 3rd place, but winning by 1 second on corrected time! This takes us to 5 points overall (1st, 3rd, 1st), and makes us class leaders again!

Wind is forecasted to be less tomorrow, and raining for most of the day, but we have a fixed line start tomorrow, so don't need to leave the marina until a little later.

Wet and windy 3rd

Got up this morning to drizzle, which kept up until well into the first race. We had a committee boat start line today, which meant an early start, then motoring for an hour out to near Portsmouth for the start. Unfortunately the large job got caught in the track on the hoist just before the start and had to be cut free, meaning we didn't have the most powerful sail for the race, and only just made the start line for the gun. But we ended up getting a reasonable start, holding 3rd place behind Loveshack and Beachwood homes for the whole race. 3rd over the line and 3rd on corrected time behind Beachwood Homes and Loveshack left us with 2nd overall so far behind Loveshack with 4 points. Two sails are with the sailmakers overnight, (jib and a broken luff line on the main sheet) but weather should be better for tomorrow hopefully.

1st race, 1st place

Left the marina in the rain at 0930 this morning, prepared for a cold, wet sail. Rain stopped before the start, leaving a light wind, which pete used to our advantage to get what cowes radio described as the best start of thieves day! We held the lead for most of the race, only letting loveshack past while heading for home as the wind got up. Finished the race less than 1 minute behind loveshack in 28 knot winds, and won the race on corrected time!

As we came 2nd in our 1st race last year, and came 2nd overall, we're taking a 1st place as very good omen!

Training and prep

A rather windy day today (gusting 30 knots and more), so only a short practice sail, but enough to get the kite up and try some jibes. Spent the rest of the day repacking the boat and sorting out Greg's boat for the corporate hospitality. Out for some team bonding drinks tonight, then 1130 start for the first race tomorrow.

Cowes 2008

It's come around again! Just waiting to get on the red funnel, heading for the crew house. We're on the water for a training session 1st thing tomorrow (friday), then racing starts saturday morning.

Blast

Well, it was windy! Gusting up to 30 knots meant we seriously considered racing with the storm jib, but we went with the number 3 which turned out to be the right move. We even got the spinnaker up twice, although we took it down to jibe. We joined the first race of the day and lead from start to finish giving us another 1st place to add to our training record. Unfortunately the second race of the day was canceled due to the tide turning and kicking up the waves, but we'd got a good couple of hours of sailing in by then, (and bowman Andy had got nicely soaked!) so we called it a day. Now can't wait for August and Cowes Week!

Windy day

Got up this morning to see the wind's got up quite a lot overnight.
hoping to do two races today, so looks like we're going to get wet!
all good practice though.

A fine day on the water

Got down to Anticipation at 1030 (after Pete the Kiwi had watched NZ beat England at the rugby!). Nice 10-15knot wind, a bit overcast with occasional breaks of sun and showers. Spent a couple of hours practicing jibes and getting a feel for the boat, then entered a race which we proceeded to win! Hopefully a good omen for Cowes week. To more races tomorrow, but off to the pub now for a well earned drink!

Pete's Pad

Arrived in Cowes at 2000 last night after missing the earlier ferry due to Friday traffic. Drove up to Peter's (the skipper/owner) place in Gurnard and met up with the rest of the crew. Some old faces from last year and some new, but we all bonded over dinner and a pint in Pete's local. Not sure what the sailing's going to be like today - winds are light at the moment, and it's supposed to rain on and off - but we're going for a practice sail this morning, and then hopefully join a race this afternoon and tomorrow.

The next challenge!

I'll be driving down to Cowes in a couple of hours for the SailForCharity Cowes Week 2008 training weekend, the first and only training we'll get as a full team (almost - Greg's still on Eclipse somewhere between the Azores and Cowes). This'll be a big deal for us as we've got a lot to live up to, 2nd place in our class and 15th overall last year, and obviously we'll want to do as well or better this year! Just hope my main sheet trimming won't be too out of practice.

Blogging from Eclipse

If you've been visiting my blog to get updates on Eclipse, then you'll probably want to head over to http://perrysmaison.blogspot.com/ where Dave will be keeping up the blogging from the boat tradition now I'm home.

Pictures!

Not many, but I've updated all I took on my camera onto Facebook. See http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=38197&l=8477f&id=617551816

Flying with Life Jackets

I had a bit of trouble getting my life jacket checked in on my return flight from Bermuda. It turned out not to be a problem, however the info I had printed off from the CrewSaver website (http://www.crewsaver.co.uk/download.php?id=1215 and http://www.crewsaver.co.uk/download.php?id=1212) was a couple of years out of date, and it took them a while to find the appropriate regulations in their books.

In case you encounter a similar issue, refer the airline to section 2.3.4.2 of the IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations 2008 (49th Ed). Basically, it says you can carry up to 4 cartridges (2 in life jackets + 2 spare) per person, either as checked or carry-on baggage

Royalty

Woke up Sunday to a still, calm day. A nice change from the heavy wind that caused us so many problems on Saturday. Motored back to the St George's club to meet Rick and Mike who had flown in from Houston to crew on the next leg. I spent the morning showing them Eclipse's communication systems and packing, then we caught a taxi into Hamilton for a last minute tourist dash.

Being Sunday most of the shops were closed, but we had a decent lunch in a restaurant over looking the harbour, then wandered round the main drag and parks. One thing to note if you're thinking of visiting Bermuda... the Americans in our party found everything very expensive, however due to the strength of the pound against the US dollar (which the Bermuda Dollar is pegged to) prices seemed roughly equivalent to UK prices, so not too bad.

After a wander round we used Greg's RORC membership to get access to the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, a nicely posh yacht club with pictures of the queen and some rather large, expensive looking boats tied up in the marina. Ironically, for a country where the temperature in winter rarely drops below 15 Celsius, they had details on one of the club notice boards about the winter Frostbite series!

After finishing our drinks we jumped into a taxi and went back to the yacht, where I said my goodbyes, loaded up my bags and headed for the airport. Flight left at 8pm local time (midnight UK time) and was fairly smooth. Plane can't have been more than 20% full, so I had a row of seats to myself! I even managed to get some sleep, although not nearly enough. Clare picked me up from the airport, and am now revelling in the luxury of home, (floors that don't move, comfy mattress with head room above, normal English food!).

Strange to be back, but a relief I think after being away for so long.

Piracy

Bit of a rude awakening on Saturday morning... awoke at 5am to find that the anchor had dragged in the night with the rising wind and Eclipse was perilously close to crunching against the dock. Made an emergency exit from the slip with the help of a neighbouring yacht crew, and some fancy driving by Greg and set off for a safer anchor.

Fuelled up at 0830 from a truck on the town quay, then after another fraught manoeuvre in the winds gusting 40 knots on the nose, (again, all credit to Greg for getting us off without gel coat damage) we motored out to a mooring on the other side of the bay away from the lee shore. Spent the morning sun bathing and working on the boat, then in the afternoon, after deciding that the wind didn't look like abating, pulled the heavy anchor, chain and dinghy out of deep storage. Got the heavy anchor deployed, which held us fast, then pumped up the dinghy and Anna and I motored off to find a bar!

A mile or so along the shore we moored up to a jetty, locked the engine and found a small bar, where we chatted to the locals over drinks for a couple of hours. Everyone was friendly, happy to chat about island life, however when we returned to the dinghy at about 2230 we discovered we had been prey to some of the less savoury elements of the population, as someone had nicked the fuel tank (full of petrol), leaving me to have to row the mile back to the yacht against the wind in the dark! We were not amused.

Bermuda Short

Cleared customs Friday morning and headed for our host yacht club - the St. George's Dinghy and Sports Club. Tidied up the boat, then wandered into the local town (St George's) and had a look round. The place looks like hot, dry version of a town in the Lake District, albeit with some slightly more Mediterranean architecture. The stamp of the British governance is very much in evidence... driving on the left, police dressing the same as in the UK, etc, although with the American twist of a dollar based currency and US power sockets and fittings. Nice place to visit, but I can't see why anyone wants to live here... an island the size of the Isle of Wight, 5 hours flight away from the nearest civilization!

 

Spent the evening at the yacht club, chatting to the crews from the other boats taking part in the ARC. Decided to move my flight from Saturday to Sunday evening to spend a bit more time here looking around... I'd be surprised if I ever come back, so seems like a missed opportunity if I don't.

Bermuda at last!

As of 0025 local time this morning we are anchored in the harbor at St. George's Town, Bermuda. We've got our yellow quarantine flag up and are waiting the local customs office to open at 8am so that we can clear immigration. Quite frustrating... we're a couple of hundred meters off the quayside, and a band at a bar kept us up to 3am last night, but we can't go ashore for a shower or a drink until HM Gov have their toast!

 

Last few days sailing have been tough on us. 20-30 knot winds and 5-10 foot swells have meant some lumpy and wet conditions, but by the sound of it we got off lightly compared with some of the ARC fleet. Seems strange to think I'll be on my way home tomorrow... this yacht's been like home to us for 3 weeks, but I can't say I don't miss my real home. Looking forward to sleeping in a real bed that isn't at a 30 degree angle, being able to venture more than 42.7 feet in any direction, and not having to wake at 2am in the cold and dark because I'm on watch for the next 4 hours (and then getting pelted with cold sea water for those next 4 hours)!

Weather

Not much let up on the weather... still pretty awful - hence lack of postings. But, we should be in Bermuda in the next day or two if all goes well.

Catch of the day

Another quiet day yesterday, the highlight of which was Greg catching an 11 pound yellowfin tuna with his line off the back. He filletted it and cooked it up for lunch... great bit of fresh fish! Wind has got up over night, so looks like we're in for a heavy 24 hours.

Slow progress

We haven't been making too much progress on the last 24 hours. Wind dropped down to less that 10 knots in  the morning, and hasn't picked up much since. Sea is also fairly calm. Motored for a couple of hours to keep our progress up. On the plus side, it's calm enough for me to go down below for reasonable periods of time and not feel sea sick. We even had a crew meal round the table in the saloon, something unthinkable on the 1st leg!

Gulf Stream

After a fine night sailing North up the Gulf Stream West of the Bahamas we've now changed course due East heading for Bermuda. Clear, starry night, and now a beautiful sunrise!

Goodbye America!

Left Fort Lauderdale at 1900 today (Friday) with a fixed propeller! Wind and weather looks good at the moment, and we expect to arrive in Bermuda by Thursday. Confused US Customs and Immigration by leaving America on a Yacht (trip to the Airport to hand in our Visa Waiver forms), but we're now on our way and feeling good for it!

More adventures

Sailed into Fort Lauderdale at 1500 yesterday (Thursday) as planned after a pleasant sail up here. Winds were great, sea not too choppy, and we caught the Gulf Stream so the pace was good, (the Speed Over Ground read 10.4 knots at one point!). The autopilot is also now working great, steering for most of the trip.

 

Unfortunately as we reached the main turning circle at the Fort Lauderdale harbor, (the place where all the cruise ships come in, turn round and moor up) we discovered we had no engine power... engine was working, but it was not pushing us through the water. Tried to get to the nearest quay to tie up under sail, to be told by the US Coast Guard (waving guns!) that we'd entered a federally restricted zone and had to move! So under sail power we had to negotiate two departing cruise liners, and get across the turning circle against the wind, then South down the ICW canal, all the time being shouted at by various Pilots, Coast Guards and Sheriffs boats telling us to get out the way. None of the authorities offered to help tow us, which really puts into perspective how much more friendly the UK waters are!

 

After making it a few hundred meters up the ICW against tide and wind we tied off at another deserted looking industrial quay, (where I very nearly fell in after a knot slipped on one of the mooring lines!). We called Sea Tow (US water based version of the AA) who said they were busy and might be able to get someone out in a couple of hours. Another boat was moored off at the quay next door, which turned out to be a divers boat. Anna walked over and managed to sweet talk one of the divers on board to come and check the propeller. While this was happening another Sheriff pulled up in a car and told us we were in another Federally Restricted Area, having tied up at an unmarked US Navy fuel depot! Luckily this Sheriff was a boat owner and didn't force us to leave straight away.

 

The Diver had a look at the bottom of the boat, and told us the Propeller was completely missing... must have fallen off when we left Key West! This was quite a surprise, as this almost never happens, and wasn't something that had been worked on while in Key West. We didn't have the spare parts on board, so Sea Tow were called again, and eventually came out to tow us to the Hyatt Hotel Marina, finally getting there at about 2000.

 

Another exciting day aboard Eclipse! We're now going to spend the day in Fort Lauderdale, getting the propeller fixed, and doing some other bits of maintenance. Hopefully leaving Saturday morning for Bermuda.

Next Leg

Left Key West at 1400 after stocking up on provisions and waving off the shore support (Gary and Casey - The maintenance guys from Houston) and the last of the crew not coming with us on this leg (Rick). Sky is blue, and the wind is good, so we should be in Fort Lauderdale tomorrow afternoon.

Successful Sea Trials

We've spent a long, hot day working on the boat, but it's finally
looking like a yacht! Everything that needed fixing has been fixed,
plus a couple of other issues discovered when the wiring was checked,
and it's all looking good. Gary and Casey have done an absoultely
fantastic job... total dedication driving here from houston, then
spending the last 3 days working non stop. If you need work done on a
boat in the Houston araa, they come thoroughly recommended!

Hopefully we'll leave Key West around midday tomorrow, stop on
Thursday at Fort Lauderdale for the night to pick up Alastair, then
next stop Bermuda!

Kemah Portal

If you haven't done so already, check out the Kemah Portal link to the right. Kemah, Texas was the Yacht's home before we left, and Mel Davis at KemahPortal.com has been doing a great job posting information on the site with updates from the yacht phoned in by sat phone when the weather's been too rough to email. There's also the GPS tracks from the yacht's transmitter, so you can see where we are on a daily basis.
Thanks Mel!

Dry Land

We're now on dry land for some much needed r&r. pulled into Safe
Harbour in Key West early this afternoon, and discovered the marina
has the only bar I've found so far in the US to have Strongbow Cider
on their 'imported beers' list. 2 refreshing pints later and we're
checked into a local motel. now showered, shaved and getting a taxi
into Key West central to get some food and drinks.

land ahoy!

Land sighted at 9.30am this morning... the first sight of land for
over 7 days. currently motoring past Key West round to the marina
where the shore crew (Casey and Gary driven over from Houston) are
waiting to strip down and fix the malfunctioning electronics and seal
the leaks.
Hoping my sea legs won't reverse on me and make me shore sick before I
hit the showers!

Cool night sailing, and slow progress

Despite the lack of main sail due to the broken traveler, we had a great
night sail last night. Stars were out and the wind was good.
Bio-luminescence was bright in our wake, and every so often a flying fish
would bounce off the sail!

This morning we got the main sail rigged up to the racing traveler. This
means the biminy cover has to come down from the cockpit, so we're getting a
lot more sun, but we have a full set of sails to play with. That didn't last
too long though, as the wind died this afternoon, so we're motoring towards
Florida. Means that the boat is level down below for a change, so it's not
as much of a challenge going to the head!

Seeing a lot more wildlife as we get closer to land. Schools of flying fish
shooting over the water like small blue birds, seagulls, and even a pigeon
followed us for about an hour at one point! Looks like we'll pull into Key
West on Monday morning now, sooner the better!

Change of plan

We're making slow progress, having broken the main sheet traveler, along
with a number of other bits of equipment, and the weather's not been kind,
so we are going to need to stop before St Aug to make repairs. The current
plan is to stop at Key West for at least one night, (hopefully Sunday) see
what there is, then either stay there, or head up to Fort Lauderdale. The
probability is that we stay at Key West though, and head straight to
Bermuda from there.

Looking forward to getting on some dry land and having a shower, (one that
is not a surprise, and does not taste of sea water!)

Sea Legs, or lack of

Sorry for the lack of posts since wee left, but I've discovered that my sea
legs take about 3 days to kick in! That's 3 days of throwing up and
sleeping, not so nice! But, we've been making good progress, and should be
getting to the straights of Florida in 2 days.

Had some fun with ships towing long cables, melted wires in the engine room
and a dead tacktick instrument, but nothing that should slow us down.

You can also check out progress by looking at www.kemahportal.com, which has
a progress map and updates from the trip.

We're off!

Current position: 29 57.240 N, 095 03.48 W

Set sail from Kemah at 1240 today, with a goal of reaching Galveston before
the fuel dock closes at 1900. Currently motoring because, after a week of
great sailing weather, it's currently flat calm after thunder storms all
night!

All my stuff is packed and stowed, and my hire car is returned to the
dealer... bring on Florida!

14 hours to go

I've been doing last minute errands and jobs today, but looks like every thing's coming together. If all goes to plan tomorrow, we'll be leaving Kemah Marina at midday, sailing to Galveston to pick up Greg, then off into the Gulf of Mexico.

The forecast for Sunday/Monday is for a Northerly to come in, with 11 foot swell and 20-30 knot winds, so we should be in for some heavy weather, however if it comes the wind will be in the right direction to push us towards florida in extra quick time. Given it's going to be quite tight getting there in time, this is exactly what we need, and may mean we get an extra day for a stop over in Key West.

Fingers crossed my next post will be from the yacht while under sail!

So much to do!

We're setting sail on Saturday morning, and it's coming up fast! The boats looking good, and all of the outstanding issuse on the to do list should be done by tomorrow evening. I've spent the last few days sorting out the laptops for the yacht, (one primary plus one older one in case of problems) sorting out stuff on the boat, and getting my tourist shopping done! I even valet parked at the local Saks 5th Avenue store on Tuesday! I could get used to this, but the place is huge. I've done about 400 miles so far this week, mainly just going to and from the boat, but at least petrol is cheap - a full tank for only $50 (about £28)!

This afternoon I'm driving down to the boat and hopefully we're going to be able to take it for a test sail, then there's a party to attend this evening held by Shirley, who's one of the crew for the first leg, and an English ex-pat living in Houston. Tomorrow I've got to re-pack my bags for the sail and get everything stowed on board.

Posted from the yacht!

I've spent the afternoon on the yacht, the culmination of which is this post, via Iridium Satellite phone from the Nav station! It all works, and (from a geeky perspective at least) all looks really cool!
[Edited for spelling mistakes - I must remember to spell check before I send an email from the boat in future!]

Gadget Mecca

After the dismal failure of my Sat Nav yesterday I drove round to the local BestBuy store to look for a new one, and was impressed again at how big and cheap everything is! Picked up a TomTom for less than they are in the UK... US maps only but I can either take it back at the end of the week for a 15% restock fee, or buy the UK maps when I come home!

Once my TomTom augmented sense of direction was restored I drove down to the boat and met up with Terry and Andrew who had just changed the engine oil and fluids, (glad I missed that little chore!). Also met up with Gary who's been installing a lot of the Nav and electronics and worked out a couple of the bugs in the system. Still got a short snag list for stuff to be done, but nothing that can't be sorted before Friday.

Then we had to drive to the nearest Frys store to pick up a 50 foot VGA cable, so that Gary could run it from the Nav station to the cockpit tomorrow, and wow was Frys huge! Made best buy look like a corner store, and was at least as big as the Asda in Canterbury, (which is supposed to be the biggest in the UK). And full of every conceivable gadget and cable you could need!

After that we drove over to Shirley's, (an English ex-pat who lives over here, and will be crewing on the first leg) for a dinner of steaks and baked potatoes. Drove home after dinner and had an early night as I think the jet lag is catching up to me!

Not a good day for gadgets

Woke up early this morning, (5am Houston time, 11am UK time). Turned on my phone which promptly crashed, then on reboot wouldn't read the SD card. Bad news as this is also my SatNav, which needs the SD card to work. Can't get the thing to work, looks like the SD card slot has died, and apparently Orange insurance 'wil express ship me a new one as soon as I return to the UK'. So looks like I'm either going to have to resort to paper maps, (which I'm not confident I'd be able to follow given the distance between places and the strange American road signs round here) or buy a new SatNav. Looks like a trip to the local Frys electronic store.

Then to make matters worse, opened up my laptop to check email and discovered I've broken one of the hinges... guess I must have dropped it at some point on the trip. Still working, but doesn't look good. Fingers crossed it'll last until I get back to the UK!

First sail on Eclipse

Woke up surprisingly late on Sunday... about 9am Houston time (3pm UK time). I guess the long trip must have warn me out. Picked up some breakfast at a boardwalk cafe (croissant with cheese and bacon with New Orleans coffee) then checked out the boat in sunlight. It's looking really great, Greg's obviously done a lot of work, (or at least had a lot of work done!). A couple of minor issues to work through this week, but nothing major. Took it out for a sail, which was fantastic. Sunny, warm and a nice breeze. If the weather stays like this we should be able to make Florida in one tack! I'm tanning nicely already, but am going to have to pick up some factor 50 if I want to avoid sunburn.

Drove back to Greg's house after the sail. His place is huge! But at 3000 square foot is considered small in this area, and (given the exchange rates) is probably worth less than my house in Whitstable!

Houston, we have landed

Flight was good, smooth and rather boring. Watched 2 movies, (National Treasure: Book of Secrets - Awful film! No Country For Old Men - Not the best film to watch while on the way to Texas!), ate two meals (one half an hour after take off, one 7.5 hours later just before landing!), got hungry and eat lots of fun size chocolate bars and drank lots of tiny cans of coke and sprite, listened to IPOD and read magazines and books. At least the seat turned out to be good... lots of leg room. What a way to spend 9 hours!

On arrival walked for miles through air conditioned corridors to US customs where I queued for half an hour. The primary purpose of the queue seemed to be to make sure you watched the chirpy 'America is great' video on loop displayed above the customs booths at least twice. I imagine this is a terrorist prevention measure to make you feel guilty in case you'd been lying when you ticked the 'I am not a terrorist' box on the immigration form! No pat downs or rubber glove action at the customs post, just a full set of finger prints and a photo, then off to the baggage carousel for another 30 minute wait for my bags, which arrived intact (thank you terminal 4!).

Finally left the air port an hour after getting off the plane to a wall of heat - apparently it's 'cold' at the moment! Found out the hire cars were a 15 minute buss ride away, which is great if you have two fully loaded kit bags and maximum hand luggage! Then another half hour queue at the Avis desk to pick up my car. Annoyingly all the other rental desks were queueless, although I'll take that as a good sign. Available car not the Chevrolet Impala which I was expecting, but a white Hyundai Sonata. Avis rep shocked that I didn't want to upgrade my 'import' model for a US car for only $19 per day.

Found the car 10 minutes walk away next to a long line of rental Hummers, (no wonder the world is running out of oil!). Spent 10 minutes figuring out how to make the thing go (automatic) then got on the road and drove 45 minutes to a restaurant to meet Greg. Had a proper American steak, then drove 30 minutes to the boat and tried to sleep.

Departure from Whitstable: 0745 UK time (0145 Houston time), arrival at Kemar Marina: 2230 Houston time (0430 UK time). Very long day. First impressions of the US: It's big. Very big.

On the plane

Made it through customs, all bags in tact, with only a brief pat down from security guard! Hope the US end is that smooth. Bussed to the plane, and I'm now seated and read to go!

*Sent from my SPV M3100 Smartphone*

Leaving on a jet plane

24 hours to go and I'm all checked in. According to SeatGuru.com I've got a good seat, so hopefully my legs may actually fit! This time tomorrow, (if all goes to plan) I'll be in the air.

Packing hell

How to pack for 4 weeks away? As many of you know I'm a car boot packer... I can fill a car boot with 'stuff' for a weekend away, and I pretty much filled a car for Cowes week last year, so I'm finding it very difficult to get everything required in two bags of hold luggage and one carry on! Well, got to be done, so I'd better get back to it... less than 2 days before my flight leaves.

The Plan

So, what's the point of this blog? For those of you who I haven't
bored with this already, I'm going on a trip from mid-April to
mid-May, crewing on the first two legs of the delivery of my friend
Greg's Bénéteau 42s7 'Eclipse'. The purpose of the delivery is to get
Greg's yacht from it's current berth in Clear Lake, near Houston,
Texas to the more convenient location of Cowes, England. Unfortunately
I can't get 2 months off work do sail the whole way, so I'm just
crewing on the first two legs. The yacht will be joining the ARC
Europe rally from Florida in a group of boats to make the journey
safer and easier to plan.

In more detail; I'm flying from Heathrow (not Terminal 5!) to Houston
on Saturday 19th April, staying in Houston close to the boat for a
week, getting acclimatised and doing some jobs on the yacht. We then
set sail on 25th April heading for St. Augustine, Florida which we
should reach by 4th May if the going is good.

We'll spend a couple of days in Florida where we'll meet up with the
rest of the ARC yachts, get a briefing and a safety check, then set
off on 8th May heading for Bermuda, which we should reach after about
10 days sailing. I get a couple of days R&R in Bermuda, then I've got
to come back to the real world (via Gatwick) while the yacht heads
across the Atlantic to the Azores, and then finally Cowes for the end
of June.

To view a map of the route go to:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=102985195416063873767.00044adbe0e79136b3ec4&ll=42.940339,-42.011719&spn=76.636635,129.023438&t=p&z=3

For the next six weeks I'll be posting to this blog regularly with
details of my trip, mainly to make everyone back home jealous! We've
got laptops and a Sat phone on board the yacht, and have to report our
position daily via email to the ARC organisers, so I'll even be able
to blog from the boat!

Any questions or comments, please fill in the comments box by each
post and they'll be emailed to me where ever I am, although for the
time I'm at sea, please keep them to a minimum as the Sat Phone
connection is only 9.6k, and I don't want to have to spend all day
below decks picking up my mail!

There should also be a web page where you'll be able to see our
progress on a map, so I'll post details of that as and when I get it.

Thanks for reading.