CHANGEOVER NO 2 - 27/10/2005
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 Banner cloud over Gib
Today was the last page of chapter two and the first of chapter 3! Ray flew home this afternoon and Steve arrived this evening with three new recruits. The last couple of days we have been towered by the notorious banner cloud, but this afternoon it has faded. However I have attached a photo for all you budding meteorologists.
We had a few visitors this morning, mainly other participants of the BWR. They were amazed at the interior size of the boat compared to other boats of a similar length. However he had plenty of room really. They were also surprised at how basic she is down below, and couldn’t believe that we only have two burners and no real oven. But we love her! Their boats are very comfortable and roomy, most of them have cupboards to hang clothes in and fridges and freezers. These simple things now appear to us as a great luxury! We also had one young school girl who was very excited to be able to come on board. Her friends had seen the boat and every time she had come down, we had gone out. So I was pleased to show her around, her parents had obviously taught her about Sir Francis and his achievements because she was very grateful.
I am having trouble trying to send the broken spinnaker pole back and finally have been told that it will need to be transported by land. Manana! Manana! Ray did a few jobs this morning, mainly fixing some of the wooden trim that has been knocked off. I cleaned some of the cupboards out which are constantly getting damp and covered in wood splinters. I also did a quick food inventory ready for the boys tomorrow.
After some last minute shopping for breakfast tomorrow, I was offered a very much needed cup of tea by a couple who have done a lot of cruising world wide. They now appear to be hampered by a very cute but mobile baby boy of just 12 months. He has spent most of his little life on Seraphin and apparently visited 19 islands before he was born. They will be joining the next BWR in 2 years.
I got back to the boat, put the cushions back in place and looked up the pontoon to see Steve and the three lads walking down.
Hi this is Steve logging on, I will be the skipper for the next leg, and very much look forward to keeping up to date with Gipsy Moths progress over the next 2 weeks.
GETTING READY - 28/10/2005
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 Steve -the new skipper
Our new crew are rapidly becoming the new celebrities. Whilst trying to get the boat ready for our next leg of the voyage to Tenerife, people have been asking them questions and taking photos. We have had a busy day and Steve has managed to get out of writing his first skippers report!
Our CEO David Green arrived last night so he came down this morning to see us all. He started them off on the first of many interviews that they will do now they are aboard Gipsy Moth. We had a few more visitors from visiting yachts and people that had heard we were in the marina.
Steve took Rahim and Myles shopping to Morrisons to stock up the cupboards, they came back with a fair few bags. All I wanted to know was had they bought some PG tips and enough chocolate! Meanwhile Mr Green and I went to pick up our Mount Gay party items from the airport. He had booked a car in Spain so we walked over the border into Spain. The contrast was slight, the cars were still beeping at each other madly and of course everyone was talking Spanish, which wasn’t a problem. However when we arrived at the car rental place, they had gone for their three hour lunch break.
So we left without a car and walked back over the border.
There appears to be a problem with the software again because we have had trouble downloading the video clips to you so a big apology to those of you waiting. All the food has been stored and counted in which leaves us with filling the tanks tomorrow, clearing customs and getting Gipsy ready for sea again. We are all looking forward to going sailing again. We are fortunate that we have only been here for 3 weeks on and off but some of the other BWR participants have been here for 5-7 weeks. They are very eager to set off on their adventure and for many of them it’s a new life!
We have a Mount Gay party to go to now, that we are hosting so more tomorrow…
THE NAMING OF BLACK BEARD - 29/10/2005
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 Blackbeard appears
What a start to our two days of preparation on Gipsy Moth, with the aftermath of the Mount Gay Red Cap party for the BWR. Crews were late to stir for the morning watch, a good night was had by all and that’s all I am saying about it my lips are sealed. We pressed on with the endless stream of tasks associated with getting a boat ready for an ocean passage, whilst at the same time showing the occasional passer by and well wisher round the boat I had my first experience at moving the boat today to top up with fuel and return to our berth and yes I can honestly liken it to pushing a supermarket trolley on ice, but I am sure with practice Iwill master the art of manoeuvring Gipsy Moth.
Sir Francis Chichester said something about a monkey onboard well we have found one hiding on the boat, and even last night there was some monkey business going on and finally this morning the crew, Martin, Rahim and Myles managed to corner him in the fore peak and bring him before me for interrogation, but to cut a long story short his name is black beard and he is just over a year old we think he came aboard in Greenwich and has been with the boat ever since. (more about him later)
We are now nearly ready to go having completed most of our admin tasks, and tonight we were honoured by having our main meal provided for us by Jenny and John from “Tzigane” an excellent chicken and rice dish with a pud very yummy, thankyou very much it was great, everyone on the rally is so welcoming and nice.
I am looking forward to the next 2 weeks, we are slipping our lines at 09.00 hrs for a start off Europa point at 10 Oclock.
LEG 3 UNDERWAY - 30/10/2005
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 Back to basics
I am leaning against this writing machine which is the same level as the deck ie 30 degrees. My two-fingered message to you all is negotiated through four inches of depth down through that same surface because the keyboard is set into the desk top by that amount. It is like writing on a school desk with the lid open!
I have just changed headsails with Mrs Mate, Antonia Nicholson, 32, as the SW wind increased to 20 knots. It was raining and dark and both of us soon worked up an unhealthy sweat on the pitching foredeck. How the 65-year-old Chichester managed caused us both to pause as we wrestled to get the jib in the sailbag and the new sail hanked on to the stay.
Morocco is passing to port: a row of black mountains broken by the bright lights of Tangier where carpet makers go slowly blind at their feverish trade. Gibraltar is now just a memory : a comfortable hotel bedroom, sweet-smelling leather coat shops, and too early Christmas trees.
Crossing the Strait which bears the fortress town’s name we saw pilot whales and dolphins as we ate cold lamb sandwiches for lunch : courtesy of the Little Mermaid and doggy bags from the previous night’s supper. Skipper, Steve Rouse, 51,has a policy of throwing absolutely nothing over the side: ‘How would you like it if a dolphin came into your front room and chucked rubbish in it?’, he said. A fine sentiment but one which was nevertheless ignored by Myles Grant-Butler,16, who was obliged to return his lunch into the sea.
We are now over at 40 degrees as Mrs Mate has left the galley where she is preparing steak sandwiches to reef the mainsail as the wind freshens to 25 knots. It looks like it is going to be an interesting night – I am sure that the crew will soon settle down and get on with the job in hand!
TAKING IT QUESY - 31/10/2005
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 Position: 35 degrees 04.023 N 7 degrees 293.969 W
Course: 250 m
Av speed: 5.98 knots Motor sailing
Weather: Moonless night, starry sky. Slight swell
There are six of us on board Gipsy moth IV and four of our ship’s company have suffered mal de mer.
The debilitating effects of nausea at sea are difficult to explain to those of you ashore for whom land sickness is bad enough. With seasickness there is no quiet bed to retreat to: your pit is a heaving, twisting, tumbling surface to be gripped, let go of, and braced against. If it went on long enough the sufferer would develop a six pack through the muscular contortions of trying to hang on to the contents of the large intestine. To make matters worse there are no sympathetic mums or partners to offer kind words or re-constituting drinks: nay the fellow shipmate looks upon his stricken colleague as one might a fellow with repetative sneezing in a KFC fast food outlet during an avian flue pandemic.
So take a 53ft boat fill it with six persons and toss it out in the North Atlantic during a full gale at night. Heap on a downpour, myopic conditions and unmarked motorways of giant ships which blunder by indifferent to your pathetic attempts to move south at a walking pace. This is not a place to get ill in.
But two thirds of us were and had to fight the weird way that saliva can switch from some prosaic bodily function which helps you digest food to some toxic chemical which refuses to do its job. No instead of putting our heads under the pillow and waiting for mummy to bring us Lucozade we were battling to get a reef into GMIV’s mainsail. Or rather a second reef. The pitiful worm gear which rolls the boom – that great heavy aluminuim spar which holds the bottom of the sail down – around and around taking the sail with it like some giant kitchen roll, is as stiff as you like.
GMIV was steered between one ship’s stern and a trawler’s array of illuminations which mean it is doing something complicated and half-forgotten from your Yachtmaster theory, her eased off mainsheet allowing the boom end to drag through the sea as two others on deck clawed to get the sail down to a manageable size. In the end as the wind got up to 40 knots apparent we dropped the whole damned sail lashed it into a spray and rain sodden pulp and ran off under headsails alone – north. The wrong way! To get her to come about and use the south of west wind to push us southward towards our destination we gave her some speed then put the helm over and backed the sheets. First time she refused to come round, throwing spray back over us. Next time we got her about and sat exhausted, soaked and with the rest of the night in front of us.
There were no nursemaids or Lucozade, just the infuriating image of Chichester the man whose boat we were on who did all of this alone at an age when most of us are happy to circumnavigate our home town with the presentation of a free bus pass.
WHAT A DIFFERENCE A GOOD NIGHT MAKES - 01/11/2005
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slowly coming back to normal
Position: 33 degrees 24.97 N 9 degrees 15.77 W
Course: 190 m
Av speed: 4.5 knots
Weather: Murky sky, no moon, sea state slight
To port, the loom of distant Casablanca’s nocturnal activity is the only evidence of land and that is partly obscured intermittently by a rolling blackness which is the Atlantic swell. It is very hard to imagine that the urine yellow glow of this exotic African city contains the gin joint where Humphrey Bogart met Lauren Bacall .
But more importantly our imaginations are being stretched by reality now and not Hollywood fantasy. As I write young Yorkshire catering student Martin Dalby, 18, is counting shooting stars: ‘I’m up to 15, That’s more than people see in a lifetime,’ he said, ‘and I bet there’s more going on behind me.’ Just 24 hours ago the same Martin was describing the world to me from his second-hand experiences of it: television, internet sites and videos. His naturally enquiring mind and scientific bent was stretched by nothing more than characters in Red Dwarf discussing black holes, and a home-made website featuring astronomer Patrick Moore playing a trombone. Now he can’t wait to share the experience of his ‘spooky’ night watches with girlfriend Lisa.
The sea-sickness which laid Martin low is yesterday. So it is, too, with Myles Grant-Butler, 16, a rugby prop for London’s Dulwich College who has been in a permanent one-man scrum on the aft deck since Gibraltar. But today he sat up, smiled, and ate three apples. Mind you the alternative: a saline drip administered by skipper Steve Rouse, 51, might have had something to do with his new found appetite. Steve, wearing a T-shirt with the logo ‘Control freak’ in several different languages then hectored Myles onto the foredeck arousing some of the aggression required for England’s playing fields to setting the spinnaker which towed us for some hours this afternoon until dusk.
The quiet hero of the trio is turning out to be Rahim Kheraj, 17, and also a Dulwich College pupil. He has been first in line to tend sheets, hand sails, re-stow leaky diesel jerry-cans, make tea, steer and take charge of the oceanographic experiments we are obliged to make thrice a day. We all had a hearty lunch of Gibraltar beef steak stir-fried with mushrooms, peppers, celery and garlic served on a bed, appropriately enough, with the food of the Mahgreb: cous cous. This was prepared by Mrs Mate Antonia Nicholson, 32, who, while readily in touch with her masculine-side: handing sail and taking sun and star sights with Steve, has not forgotten her feminine side either. This was bizarrely brought to light today when the galley work surface was used both for chopping vegetables and as a beach-head for an offensive launched against the last of our Gibraltarian house flies by a Hoover –wielding Antonia. One did not like to ask what was wrong with a rolled up newspaper ( a copy of Saturday’s Daily Mail is still being read by GMIV’s crew). It’s obviously a female thing.
THE HEAVENLY BODIES - 02/11/2005
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Sailing under 5 sails
It’s known as the ‘Twilight zone’ – on land you’d call it dusk, give up the ghost with the daily round and turn to with a TV dinner. Out here in the watery wasteland of the North Atlantic however, skipper of Gipsy Moth IV, Steve Rouse, is endeavouring to help Mrs Mate, Antonia Nicholson catch some falling stars on the sextant to determine our position. All good sailors respect this noble art, even though they rely almost totally – in practical terms – on the Global Positioning System (GPS). So while the bulkhead over the chart table glows reassuringly with our satellite-determined location, Steve and Antonia are braced in the cockpit pulling known stars down to the horizon and then measuring their distance and angles to get us a fix. It can only be done at dusk while there is enough of the dying sun to backlight the horizon, but not so much that you can’t see the stars. It’s a fiddly and complex exercise and one which requires patience, practice and no small measure of arithmetical skill. Yet those who do not bother to learn this art, should put to sea with someone who can or at least give it a go. Those who consider the sextant obsolete are considered heretics and may as well make a head-dress of albatross feathers and await providence to act with a power systems failure.
While you are seeking out the brightest stars in the firmament it comes as a shock to see your first satellite tracking perfectly across the night sky, because it looks just like a tiny star. Only the exact symmetry of its trajectory give it away as something from earth not heaven. They are, these satellites, apparently pock-marked from flying rocks yet still they give us our position until their circuits eventually pack up but then there will be others. There is a downside to this remarkable technology, however. Two nights back upon hearing of our wild night in the Gibraltar Straits, UKSA ground control in Cowes requested that ‘next time’ we are fighting wind and wave we should activate the satellite-linked video cameras rigged up on GMIV’s masts so that our misery can be shared world-wide.
Recalling how Francis Chichester loathed the necessity of feeding copy to the sponsors of his circumnavigation, The Sunday Times, how he was hugely irritated by the outside ‘interference’ of Press boats – which his sponsors understandably wanted and how he wished to be left alone to get on with his sailing one can only wonder at how he would have dealt with the multi-media demands of today. Perhaps at least to that extent Steve Rouse and Antonia Nicholson are more stoic than the old master. If it all became too Big Brother-ish, then with a flick of the switch and a plaintive: ‘You’re breaking up’ just like Chichester they could shut out the rest of the world if they so wished. And turn to the sextant.
Now to our 7th member, Blackbeard, who as usual has just been hanging around. He has been a bit lazy since the first night and been guarding the bananas in his hammock. They are slowly going brown as we are afraid to take them from him. However today, wherever there was some activity onboard he would be there. But he can only stretch his cheekiness so far, he was found trying to steal Skippers special toblerone bar! Not sure what Arcala would have to say about that either.
METAPHYSICAL NETWORKING - 03/11/2005
It’s said that every shooting star is the soul of a sailor outward bound for the last time.St Peter must have been busy with his barrel of welcoming rum for dissolving fireballs have melted against the earth’s protective shield all night. Every member of Gipsy Moth IV’s crew has seen them. A couple actually lit up the 53 ft ketch’s mainsail as she continues to surge south. These celestial fireworks have also been the random torches for 20 plus boats of a world cruise: the Blue Water Rally, of which GMIV is an honorary guest. The status granted her is the occasion of Yachting Monthly magazine’s 100th birthday next year. For it was the magazine’s determined campaign to stop the rot – GMIV’s rot – which has seen the boat on her way around the world again.
The BWR yachtsmen are delighted to be in the company of the world’s most famous yacht and every morning at 10.00 sharp the ralliers’ radio net boss asks GMIV for a weather update as she is linked with the University of Plymouth’s oceanography department. Two boats gathered around the Moth’s flame to get the weather report: Clarabella, a Nicholson 35 and Riff Raff a Hallberg Rassy 40, also reported alternator problems and a third, Golden Eye, a Westerly called up to say she is running out of engine fuel. Our skipper, Steve Rouse, 51, gave Golden Eye’s skipper Bernard Clarke some reassuring news: he will rendezvous with him off Lanzarote to make sure he gets in for refuelling as the yacht does not have enough to make the official stopover – Tenerife – in one go. The plan is for the two yachts to then cruise in company the 100 miles to Tenerife.
As Mrs Mate, Antonia Nicholson, has been at her sat comms station at night she has been aware of a presence beside her. The position she works in was the site of Sir Francis Chichester’s famous gimballed chair. ‘I thought it was Steve or Dick,’ she said, ‘but when I turned to look nobody was there.’
Perhaps the old man is waiting to see GMIV safely round before joining those shooting stars.
* * *
A routine has been well established now and the days are often filled with sail drops, hoists, routine maintenance, eating and of course celestial navigation. We have not been blessed with the presence of a moon so sun sights are favoured this week. We have had the cruising shute up several times but the wind never remains favourable for more than 2 hours. At one point today we had the cruising shute, the mizzen and the mizzen staysail up, GMIV was pacing herself at a steady 5 knots in 10 knots of wind. Our crew are often seen on the foredeck now whereas three days ago it was generally the afterguard. Martin and Myles who were suffering badly from the awful mal de mer have made a great recovery. Myles has been hoisting sails alone and even prepared today’s meals. However someone has still managed to avoid any ‘mother’ duties and blames it on the smell of the paraffin which in honesty can bring on the old nausea . They are all becoming very efficient helmsmen as we are not using the self steering gear. On the 3 hour night watches we have banned the use of the compass and they are managing well by feeling the wind on their faces. All in all, they are learning that this is a team game and that we must look after Gipsy Moth , so she will carry us safely to the Canary Islands.
ROLLING IN IT - 04/11/2005
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Position: 29 degrees 39.71 N 13 degrees 45.01 W
Weather: wind North 25-35 knots, sea rough
Tender charms?
Solo circumnavigator Francis Chichester always complained about his boat’s readiness to stick her rail in the water on the wind and of her capacity to stick both rails in when off it.
The last 18 hours have shown that 40 years on nothing has changed. Gipsy Moth IV rolls maddeningly. We have been under staysail only, since the early hours when an ugly cross sea and up to 40 knots of wind caused us to drop the mainsail which can’t be reefed effectively and the large jib which was still overpowering her narrow hull. We tried to re-set the mizzen which on most ketch-rigged craft should have produced a good heavy weather sail plan. But this caused her to stall. So all day and all night the miniscule staysail has been the only sail dragging her towards the Canaries although at an acceptable 4-6 knots. Meanwhile she has rolled, rolled, rolled.
The motion has sent Martin, sick and back to his bunk, has hurled Rahim bodily onto the chart table where he sat like a mystic in a kasbah coffee shop, and thrown Myles completely off the helm and onto the cockpit floor. The locker drawers open as she rolls to port then shut as she rolls to starboard. Locker doors wave at you from head to galley as though in some abandoned house. When Mrs Mate, Antonia, started making supper she opened the one locker which hadn’t opened itself as GMIV rolled to port and was showered with jars of jam, Lea & Perrins sauce bottles, plastic tubs of peanut butter and narrowly missed being brained by a heavy duty jar of Marmite.
‘**** this,’ said skipper Steve, ‘those ******* bottles are going over the side this is like the first day on the Somme,’ added the man who raises the morale for all of us, as he inserted one of the companionway wash boards to try and keep some of the rolling spray from his bunk cushion.
Just making a cup of tea is a major offensive in the lurching bedlam of the Mad Hatter’s kitchen. Firing up the Primus means liberally hosing down the stove with methelated spirit, followed by the conflagration from the too-cold paraffin jets. It’s like trying to cook a three minute egg with napalm. The galley has been pebble-dashed with milk, tea, sugar and Irish stew. It is described as ‘minging’, whatever that means, by Mrs Mate who lives in hope that her three young charges will one day clean up after them.
We are now heading straight for Tenerife as Lanzarote has been abandoned by Golden Eye as fuel is no longer an issue in such winds. Also the water is deep and steep-to at Tenerife unlike her eastern cousin.
Incidentally Blackbeard has been sulking today after getting a telling off from Steve yesterday. I think he may also have been feeling a bit under the weather but managed to cling onto to the special Mount Gay bottle all day through this continuous rolling motion. While Rahim was servinmg himself some stew this evening, Blackbeard tried to surprise him by leaping out of the cupboard. Rahim dropped the bowl and BB landed in it too. That'll teach him for playing tricks!
LANDFOOLS, BLACKBEARD IN WONDERLAND - 05/11/2005
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Myles makes lunch
Location: Santa Cruz, Tenerife
Weather: N 3-4.
Landfall at dusk
Where was this 3,700 ft volcano upon which the Blackpool of the Atlantic had been created, and which the pilot said you could see from 60 miles distant? We were within 40 but could not pick out the black island Nelson lost an arm over while trying to wrest it from the Spanish. Today the Spaniard uses his own arms – one-armed bandits – to wrest cash from the British hankie-on-the-head brigade. But still as Gipsy Moth IV romped downwind under jib and staysail alone at up to 12 knots at times in the surfing waves, her crew could not see their first land after nearly 800 miles and seven nights at sea. Tenerife is the place Doomsday will commence when tectonic plates buckle and collapse causing a tsunami which will drown Manhatten, skipper Steve Rouse, 50, said while trying to locate it through binoculars. But still we could not see it. As we sailed on Rahim Kherja, 17, said he didn’t know whether to feel sad or glad the cruise was ending. It had been tough: GMIV was not an easy boat to sail with her cranky traditional ways. He had read solo yachtsman Francis Chichester was a stubborn old man: ‘I think he would have been suited to his stubborn old boat’. Chichester sulking below in his gimballed chair knocking back gin and tonic while the boat went her own way!
‘How far is it now?’ said Martin Dalby, 18, ‘I do feel guilty about wanting to get off.’ But still we could not see it.
Then – on the starboard bow – Steve saw a stab of light after sundown. The giant swell made it hard to determine the light’s characteristics: but there could be no doubt this was the northern end of Tenerife albeit 21 miles away and still not visible.
We entered Santa Cruz harbour at 01.30 on November 6. David and Jean Lennon of Fai Tira, a Bruce Roberts sloop and one of the Blue Water Rally yachts not only took our lines but very graciously gave us a case of beer.
For Dick Durham, 54, features editor of Yachting Monthly it had been an exceptional experience: his first ocean cruise and longest passage to date. ‘I have always enjoyed short seas cruising in the southern North Sea and English Channel, but this kind of sailing is on another level. You have to get used to the fact that night is going to be as much a part of the passage as day and from people like Antonia Nicholson, Mrs Mate, who was aboard brushing up on her celestial navigation I observed the ancient art of seeing in the dark.’ Dick has sailed at night or course, but over shorter distances: from Brixham to Belle Isle, Brittany and Burnham-on-Crouch to Kristiansand, Norway, where apart from short stretches of open water the passage amounts to little more than extended pilotage. ‘I also learned a lot about ocean seamanship from skipper Steve Rouse.’ Dick added,’ also his extraordinary ability to raise the morale when the second gale has come upon us at dusk, the dinner plates are unwashed and your sleeves and trouser bottoms are damp. It is the mark of a true leader after all who raises HIS morale?’
Blackbeard in wonderland
No sooner had GMIV moored up in Santa Cruz harbour than Blackbeard jumped ship avoiding the cleaning rota. He left behind a trail of banana skins and empty crisp packets enraging the crew, who went after him with a vengeance. But the cheeky monkey was rescued by his first fan : Alice Dearlove, 8, from Woodbridge who is sailing with the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers. She said: ‘Leave him alone you big bullies.’ Skipper Steve is at his wit’s end at what to do. If anyone has any advice on monkey control email us via www.gipsymoth.org
GIPSY MOTH MAKES THE WORLD GO AROUND - 06/11/2005
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 first landfall in tenerife
Position: Berth 69, pontoon 2, Santa Cruz, Tenerife
Weather: Spanish imperial
Forty years ago they took her hull out of salt water and placed it in a dry-dock beside another of Britain’s famous world-girdling ships, the Cutty Sark. There was nowhere else for the old tea clipper to go: all the people who could rig her, mend her and sail her engineless hull had taken their skills to the grave. But Gipsy Moth IV sat abandoned by the sea, promenaded, paid-off and prematurely retired. Her skipper had closed the circle, written the book and signed the tea-cloths. He had no further need for the ‘rocker’ and unsentimentally moved on to the fifth – and last – of his record-chasing mistresses. Now all THAT is history, too. GMIV sits rocking gently more than 2.000 miles from Greenwich. A woman passes by on the pontoon. She does a double-take. She stops. She says: ‘Chichester’s boat?’ Yes.
‘Bravo,’ comes the reply. She is just one of dozens of folk who have prevented the ship clean-up operation with their requests to come aboard. Women, children and passers-by of all nationalities have come to take a look. They included Alice Dearlove, 8, from Woodbridge, Suffolk who is sailing with her sister and mum and dad to the Caribbean. But already the sight of GMIV has inspired her: she wants her parents to take out even more down time and cross the Pacific, too!
Then there was Carole May, 69. She approached skipper Steve Rouse, 50, with her dog-eared copy of Gipsy Moth Circles The World to be signed. Her late husband Ronald had died four years ago and she was determined nevertheless to sail on in their 52 ft catamaran on a second circumnavigation to return the book to the immigration officer in Niue Island in the Pacific who gave it to her husband in the first place.
With all the goodwill going on around GMIV it was difficult for her crew to get the necessary cleaning and watering completed. But what a way to have your day spoiled! Later we all retired to the local yacht club for a yarn and a beer. Here the shrink-wrapped aspect of our modern world was experienced again when Steve fell in with a group of sailors at the bar. He did not recognise Chichester-based yachtsman Bernard Clarke skipper of the Westerly Golden Eye who we spoke on the way down ( see previous dispatch) . But Bernard recognised Steve: ‘You did my Yachtmaster training,’ he said and suddenly the chances of an early supper in a Tenerife tapas joint receded. Next Bernard was talking about a reporter who had told him his boat would likely make a front page picture for Yachting Monthly. This jogged features editor Dick Durham’s memory……’Er, that was me!’ Dick had covered the ARC start in Las Palmas three years previously where he had made the genuine, but over-optimistic pledge.
So he, too, had to delay supper!
The final serendipity came when Mrs Mate Antonia Nicholson, 32, was known to our host from her former sailing charter business based on the Isle of Wight.
GMIV makes the world go round!
FAREWELL TO DICK FROM YACHTING MONTHLY - 07/11/2005
Position: Berth 69, pontoon 2, Santa Cruz, Tenerife
Weather: Hot and sunny
Every hour spent in planning and preparation is never wasted and this could not be more apparent than when planning for an ocean passage across the Atlantic in a few days’ time. Gipsy Moth IV is quite unique in the Blue Water Rally because most of the other yacht crews in the rally are onboard for the whole circumnavigation while the crews and skippers of Gipsy Moth change over at the end of each leg. This ensures maximum participation in this historic voyage.
The pressure is then on for the off going skipper and crew to hand over the boat to the next skipper and crew in the best possible condition, and as most people must know defects mount up at an alarming rate even on a new boat never mind one that has been lovingly restored and made of wood. It is in this position that the crew of Gipsy Moth have found themselves in for the last two days. During this endless cleaning, polishing, mending and checking process Myles, Rahim and Martin found a secret stash of UHT milk 52 litres to be precise; I wonder what other surprises Gipsy Moth has in store for us over the next 2 years. The preparation continues.
MOUNT TEIDE'S LUNAR LANDSCAPE - 08/11/2005
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 Gipsy Moth's field trip
Position: Berth 69, pontoon 2, Santa Cruz, Tenerife
Weather: Hot and sunny
Well today the intrepid team from Gipsy moth IV took on the role of investigative environmental reporters in the Dick Durham mould and went on a field trip organised by The Blue Water Rally team through the mountains of Tenerife to the national park of Mount Teide. The name Canaries is in fact nothing to do with birds, or anything to do with dogs as was thought in Roman times, but is in fact connected to an African city of Canara.
The coach trip, which lasted a whole day with numerous stop offs, was a goldmine of information some of which we share with you today.
Tenerife is the largest of the seven islands, which make up the Canarian Archipelago. The island has a an area of 2,034 square kilometres and it’s centre stands a gigantic peak of mount Teide, which at a height of 3,718 meters is the tallest point in Spain. The island is little over 300kilometers from Africa and some 1,300 kilometres from Spain.
Mount Teide National Park was created in 1954 in recognition of its volcanic and biological uniqueness. It is the largest of the Canarian National Parks at a size of 18,990 hectares. At an average altitude of over 2ooo meters it is one of the most spectacular examples of volcanism anywhere in the world. The Corona Forestal Natural Park is the largest in the Canary Islands and runs all the way round Mount Teide National Park in the centre of the island. A producer of soil, water and oxygen, the Corona Forestal is reservoir of species of flora and fauna that are unique in the world, making a landscape of great beauty and an unbeatable place for education and research.
The problem in the Canaries, like in any other archipelago, is the great ecosystems, inherent in their condition of islands; therefore, it is not surprising that of ninety-four species of birds which have become extinct in the last centuries, no less than eighty-five inhabited them. The Canary Archipelago presents small habitats and simplified and vulnerable ecosystems, so that the fauna and flora only have limited territory in which to live, and any alteration endangers their survival.
On our field trip today with our guide to hand we saw in the dust bowl of Mount Teide : Canarian Lizards which ran between the rocks and dust hiding from all around and the rock sparrow which ran rather than flew when we approached. The crew of Gipsy moth will do our bit to protect these and other species on our travels and with your help they may survive for decades to come.
What a day!
GIPSY MOTH AFTERGUARD BACK TO SCHOOL - 09/11/2005
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 some of the children
Position: Berth 69, pontoon 2, Santa Cruz, Tenerife
Weather: Hot and sunny
Back to School
Today the Skipper and Mate of Gipsy Moth went back to school in Tenerife, to the English Education Centre, San Blas Commercial Centre, Golf Del Sur Tenerife. There at the gate waiting patiently was Mrs Ann Plummer, the head teacher of the School eager to greet us and lead us inside to meet a whole school of full of children between the ages of 3 and 12 years old. They were a noisy bunch but I put this down the sheer excitement they were showing towards us, It made me feel rather humble to be honest, to be catapulted into the status of celebrity overnight. What would I say? Anyone that knows me also knows that I am rarely stuck for a word or two, but faced with this situation could I pull it off I asked myself.
Never fear help was at hand Mrs Ann Plummer the head teacher soon had the group assembled under some control and I managed to introduce myself and the mate Antoina and from then on it was easy.
With Lots of enthusiasm in the assembled children and with my enthusiasm for Gipsy Moth IV we soon struck up rapport and the presentation flowed well. The children were amazed at the accomplishments of Sir Francis Chichester and of the Rebuild and 2nd circumnavigation of Gipsy Moth IV. They hung on every word and bursting with questions, eager to be the next one to be nominated to speak this indeed was great to see. The question and answer session at the end was one of the most testing I have ever had to endure and a couple of questions needed some quick thinking on my part to save embarrassment.
The school trip went well and the children exchanged stories with us over lunch, yes we had school dinners and I eagerly ate my extra portion of carrots when told to do so like a good boy. It was over dinner that Mr Colin Pears the deputy head told us of a remarkable story, of when he was a young boy watching Chichester returning to Plymouth from a hill side and asking ¡§which one is Gipsy Moth?¡¨ and being told ¡§ it¡¦s that little white one in the middle son¡¨. Indeed all the teachers were asking questions of the man and the boat. It¡¦s a little wonder that a trip that was going to take a couple of hours ended up taking four hours after a guided tour around the school talking to the children.
Tomorrow we can expect a return visit from this very lovely English school, with an 80ƒs British and 20ƒs from other European nations attendance on the south coast of Tenerife We very much look forward to welcoming all visitors between 10.00 am and 17.00 pm each day.
Blackbeard¡¦s whereabouts is still unknown, any one with information should contact us before our departure date on 17 November 2005
STEVE'S FAREWELL - 10/11/2005
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 Welcome aboard
Position: Standing in the Galley, Santa Cruz, Tenerife
Weather: Hot and sticky
School visit and Farewell to Gipsy Moth and the BWR
Today is a day of mixed feelings for me, joy at the chance of seeing my loyal wife Christine again, without her support and the backing of my close family, Nicola, Paul, Michael and Kayley I would be unable to fulfil my destiny and skipper this treasure of our National Maritime Heritage. Full of sadness because I am departing from the Blue Water Rally, Gipsy Moth and the new and old friends that I have made during my short participation on this magnificent Rally. I hope you all find that peace and place of tranquillity you are all looking for, and see enough amazing sunsets to fulfil your wildest dreams as only true blue water cruisers aspire to.
The School visit to Gipsy Moth today was a humbling experience, young children from the English Education Centre so happy to be on a part of our Maritime history and having so much fun was good to see. They had a collection before arriving and donated the sum of 200.00 Euro’s, which in itself was astounding and not only that, donating their ice cream money to help other children sail on Gipsy Moth. It was enough to make a grown man cry, with all this good in the world on display some adults should take note! Thank-you Mrs Plummer and to all the young children in the English Education Centre on Tenerife, keep in touch, and thanks for the photo, the pleasure was all ours.
What about my crew? When I first met these young men at the departure lounge at Gatwick some two weeks ago I had no idea how things would go. Lots of questions sprang to mind, this is an experiment in human nature which when conducted in the small confines of a rolling yacht could resemble a tinder box on a hot sunny day and result in catastrophe or be an education for all of us in the art of tolerance I think we can all take something away from our two weeks at sea together, it was great.
They have developed as crew both in confidence and character during the two weeks on board Gipsy Moth. Myles starting off feeling a bit rough and determined to get through fighting the sea sickness to rally strong at the end well done. Martin strong at the start and fighting for land fall at the end, only to steal the leg speed record at 12.5 knots on the very last day. Rahim my watch partner, we shared so many night hours, some silent with the odd few jokes and then those long debates setting the world to rest, so many adult conversations. You never shirked your responsibility. And finally Antonia What would I have done without you? I was so lucky to be so well supported, thanks Ray for lending me your wife. Dick from Yachting Monthly if you are still out there it was a pleasure sailing with you.
And so a new era starts, we are departing at 09.00 and the new skipper Richard arrives on Saturday to take Gipsy Moth to her new horizon, have fun and I hope to see you again in the near future.
SOLITUDE - 11/11/2005
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 The handover
Position: Marina del Atlantico, Santa Cruz, Tenerife
Weather: Hot but windy
I’m alone here now on GMIV, trying to think what it was like for Sir Francis. There’s a reasonable amount of space for one but not for six. How did he manage alone with no one to share immediate thoughts, special occasions or even to calm ones fears? Today´s world is full of instant communication systems and it´s so easy for us to call our loved ones or even friends when we want to share special thoughts and experiences. The crew of leg 3 departed this morning with the skipper Steve Rouse and I found myself alone on the boat. I have a few more days till I return home to handover to GM´s custodian skipper Richard Baggett. The crew were quite reluctant to leave the boat but I’m sure they were really looking forward to normal household comforts that we all take for granted these days. They will have so many stories to tell and some great experiences to share with others. As the days progressed they were showing a real passion for the boat and were very proud to be part of the big project. Whenever a passer by stopped to look at Gipsy Moth and our sponsors’ flags, one of them would very proudly start talking about the voyage and the restoration. In fact, Myles and Rahim have been so inspired that they are planning another fundraising event at school.
I have continued with the ongoing maintenance list today as well as having a few hours looking for the hypermarkets and chandleries in Santa Cruz. It’s a rather sophisticated city, being the capital of the island. In the new part of the town there are some outstanding buildings such as the Auditorio and the International Trade fair and Congress centre, both of which are designs of the renowned architect Santiago Calatrava. There are also many shopping centres and our favourite store has to be El Corte Ingles that sells almost anything. I’m really looking forward to the African market where they sell vegetables, fruit and at the weekend crafts and souvenirs. The avenues are lined with magnificent trees (not sure which variety) and white stone benches. On my way back this morning I saw the walkway and benches being hosed down, which obviously shows the pride that these Canarians have of their capital.
When I returned to the boat this afternoon, I expected to be welcomed back by the crew who had usually been set some tasks while I went on a mission to the Internet Café to upload the video clips etc. However it was very quiet and the washboards were in, I think this was the loneliest moment I have had for 4 weeks. Having been in a confined space for 4 weeks with 5 other people I would have thought a few hours peace and the boat to myself would have been most welcomed but for a few moments I missed the people that had turned into a good reliable team. However about twenty minutes later it was great to have some space but I wasn’t alone for long, I remembered Blackbeard who has been in his hammock with the Mount Gay bottle since yesterday. Since his disappearance on our arrival, we received sightings of him around town and even at the Real Club Nautico. But we reckon he was tempted back when he heard that some school children would be visiting, as he does enjoy their company because he can show off in front of them. So he has been pretty lazy today, but he did get up to have his photo taken with Sammy. Sammy is sailing on Golden Eye and was very excited to be invited onto Gipsy Moth IV.
The great thing about being part of the BW Rally is there will always be someone to talk to or an event to attend. So tonight I joined Rob and Amanda from Riff Raff and John and Jenny from Tzigane for some tapas. We swapped stories about the rolly crossing from Gibraltar, discussed routes for crossing the Atlantic next week and also spoke of the apprehension and excitement that everyone is encountering for what will be their first long crossing.
Steve did an official hand-over to me of the special 40th edition Mount Gay rum this morning, need i say that it was closely guarded by our mate Blackbeard, so they are under my care until Richard arrives tomorrow evening. |
