Sailing Heldeleine | Adventures of the Culpepper Family

Update photos from the 2nd Leg!

Posted on June 6, 2015 by LeahJune 6, 2015

We arrived in Horta, Azores on Thursday and have been busy learning to sleep for more than 3 hours at a time, doing boat upgrades (new transformer for European power), some sightseeing and welcoming my sister Laurie aboard for the next 2 weeks. So, here are a few photos from the last leg. It had a bit of everything, wind, calm, rain, sun, dolphins and whales. More to follow.

Pierre’s photo of large birds with small wings

Tom spent a lot of time instructing Pierre in celestial navigation

Spinnaker in all her glory. The sail proved to be both wonderful and a pain in the butt.

DAD!

The Island of Pico, seen through the clouds.

inReach message from Daniel Culpepper

Posted on June 4, 2015 by June 4, 2015

We have arrived! Hello from Horta, Faial, Azores! We are at the customs/fuel dock waiting. Kind of surreal to be here… View the location or send a reply to Daniel Culpepper: https://explore.delorme.com/textmessage/txtmsg?mo=44cff214b19245059265fa8982ca9cd629773376&adr=50ftbnto-clpppr%40sailingheldeleine.com Daniel Culpepper sent this message from: Lat 38.531198 Lon -28.625113 Do not reply directly to this message. This message was sent to you using the DeLorme inReach two-way satellite communicator with GPS. To learn more, visit http://www.delorme.com/inReach/

Quick Update

Posted on June 3, 2015 by June 3, 2015

Well, after whining about this or that over the last few days, I am happy to report that we had a magical night of sailing. Winds were from the west at about 10 kts. The sea was flat except for the large swells that raised Heldeleine up and nudged her of her way at 6-7 kts. During our watch from 11-2, my dad and I observed the full Moon move from dead ahead to 90 degrees to starboard. The Moon illuminating the sea in a beautiful shade of silver. The boat rocking gently and all life seeming impossibly good. Tom made a friend during his 2-5 watch and here is Tom’s Story: I heard a chirping in the darkness behind the boat about 0300, (sounded like a dolphin, but I new the dolphins weren’t talking to us…) I went to the fishing line that we had trolling behind the boat, and it felt like we had caught something, but I could not see in the darkness behind the boat. I reeled in the line, and again part way down a bird had gotten caught up in the line, I hoisted the bird aboard onto to port helmsman seat and removed the line from her wing, the bird was a little freaked out of course, and stayed sitting on the seat even though it was free of the line…I went below, searched out some crackers and brought them up and feed her…apologizing to her for the misfortune with our fishing line…I wasn’t sure if she had been hurt from the mishap, but she hung out with me for the next two hours and I talked to her every now and then sitting in the cockpit together….. Pierre came on watch at 0500, and I informed him of our new pet. When I came up on deck around 0900 the bird had flown away at some point, luckily uninjured. We are now 137 miles to Horta. —- This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using OCENS’s OCENS.Mail software. Please be kind and keep your replies short.

Slowly We Go

Posted on June 2, 2015 by June 2, 2015

With very little wind and a dwindling supply of diesel to power our primary engine and the generator, we spent the morning going through various sail changes to keep us moving. Because of the loss of one of our halyards yesterday we are only able to hoist the spinnaker on the starboard side of the mast. This does crimp our downwind ability to sail. So, as the weak wind shifted slightly early this morning, we were forced to lower the spinnaker and put out the pole (which holds out the genoa and allows us to put a sail on both sides of the boat for when the wind to directly behind us). This did not work because there was too little wind. Down came the pole and on came the engine for 4 hours until we found a bit of wind. Out came the mainsail and genoa and now we are sailing at a respectable 5-6kts. Our course is alittle south of the rhumb to Horta, Faial but we will push east and hope for a slight wind shift to allow us to steer direct to the island. Much reading and snoozing has been the order of the day. We have agreed not to talk about the wind or the sea in any way because we suspect that the ‘ocean gods’ do not take kindly to our middle fingers pointed at the sky…. —- This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using OCENS’s OCENS.Mail software. Please be kind and keep your replies short.

The Spinnnaker’s Revenge!

Posted on June 1, 2015 by June 1, 2015

Pierre was on his 11-2 watch last night (having deep French thoughts, no doubt) when at midnight he saw the newly repaired spinnaker fluttering gracefully down into the pitch black sea. The head of the sail had chaffed through and parted at the top of the mast. Now only attached by the clew and tack the sail went under the boat and around the keel. Shouts below brought Tom on deck and he quickly was able to haul aboard the head of the sail and secure it. I had arrived at this point and together with Pierre we were able to get most of the sail aboard inch by inch. As the boat rotated, we freed the sail from the keel and hauled the rest aboard. Shit! My bowline knot was still attached to the head but about 8″ up the line it was chaffed through. The line must have jumped the sheave at the top of the mast and chewed itself apart with the rocking motion of the boat. We stuffed the remains of the sail into it’s bag and set the main and genoa and agreed to tackle the rest in the light of day. So, this morning we set the genoa on a pole and went wing and wing with the main to stabilize the boat. Then we removed the tangled spinnaker, straightened things out and reinstall the sleeve over the sail. We then took down the pole with the genoa and rolled in the main and rehoisted the spinnaker on a spare halyard and so it has been flying in all it’s glory today. Also we saw some freakin’ dolphins….again. —- This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using OCENS’s OCENS.Mail software. Please be kind and keep your replies short.

Pierre says “What a time to be alive”

Posted on May 31, 2015 by May 31, 2015

We have been sailing with the spinnaker all day at a steady, if not racy, 4-5kts directly for Horta, some 450 miles away. At around 5 HBT (Heldeleine Boat Time) the wind decided to quickly shift and wrapped the spinnaker around the headstay. Tom and I raced to the bow, Pierre controlled the lines in the cockpit and Max steered the boat. We were able to free the sail but it had tacked itself to the other side and screwed up all the sheets etc. We attempted to pull the sleeve (like a sock pulled down to control the giant sail) down but it caught and would not move. Of course the wind which had been docile all day decided the gust as Tom and I tried not to do a Peter Pan act on the foredeck. Pierre released halyard and we got the sail down. The sheave (a pulley) at the top of the spinnaker sleeve had broken. We were able to rebuild the sheave and put Humpty Dumpty back together again, raise the spinnaker, pull up the sleeve and set the sail. It was a great team effort and certainly adds to the adventure. But…that’s enough for today, thank you very much. Also today, Pierre, our IT Genius, created an excel spreadsheet so that we can keep track of the engine and generator hours, consumption and generate usage data. This will help us forecast future rates of use and put our minds at rest that we are not running out of diesel. This has been on our minds as the wind disappears and we started bobbing in the ocean. Tom has cooked a spaghetti dinner and it’s time to go. Regards to you all. —- This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using OCENS’s OCENS.Mail software. Please be kind and keep your replies short.

Whales and other creatures that swim under us

Posted on May 30, 2015 by May 30, 2015

We have seen many dolphins in the past few days. Some are larger than others. We see them from a distance and then they change course and escort us for 10-20 minutes. They seem to really enjoy riding our bow wave. Darting back and forth and trading places, you can’t help but smile. Yesterday after the large group left, a little guy returned for another couple of rides. Pierre and I liked to think that he was sneaking away from his parents for one last bit of fun. Soon after my Dad and I got on watch this morning we heard the sound of a whale spouting right next to the boat. About 50 feet away an enormous whale surfaced and glided along with us. Holy Shit! At about the same time another whale was crossing our bow and if it had a large fluke it might hit us. I raced to the wheel but it was not necessary, the whale just dove under the boat and circled back to take up position along side Heldeleine. We determined (by using a whale chart aboard) that these were Finback Whales, 2nd largest whale after the Blue Whale. Both of our whales were bigger than Heldeleine’s 50 feet and made us feel rather small out here…They checked us out and then went on their way. Regards to you all. —- This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using OCENS’s OCENS.Mail software. Please be kind and keep your replies short.

Dreary Day in the North Atlantic

Posted on May 30, 2015 by May 30, 2015

We are currently Motoring. It’s sucks. Wind is to light for sails to stay full. The slapping of the sails are irritating and bad for the sails. We spent some time in the last 2 days tacking back and forth and generally moving the boat northeast to catch some wind. We are keeping north of the great circle rhumb line. Think of a straight line between Bermuda and the Azores on a flat map and then imagine the curve of the earth and draw another line. That curved line is the great circle rhumb and is the shortest path to our goal. This would not be an issue on a coastal sail but when you cross 2,000 miles of the earth’s surface you need to think about it. We are far north of this line because there are better winds predicted. It always becomes a balance between too much and too little. We are constantly looking for the Goldilocks Zone. The crew is going about things in a pretty routine way. We are running a 3 watch schedule with my Dad and me as RED watch, Tom as WHITE and Pierre as BLUE (french blue of course). 4 on and 4 off during the day and 3 on and 3 off during the night. Hours shorten up in bad weather. This is working out quite well with the potential of 6+ hours off at a time. Reality is usually less with cooking, trying to fish and small repairs taking up some time. Tom is in the midst of teaching Celestial Navigation lessons to Pierre. Their most recent fixes have been within a mile of the true (GPS) locations. Damn good! Max is reading ‘Tom River’, which is about the town of his youth and I am doing whatever it is that captains do. Life is happy and pleasant aboard. So, we are 1200 miles from Bermuda and have a mere 600 miles to go. Nobody aboard has asked “Are we there yet?”. Always a good sign. Its the journey not the destination…. —- This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using OCENS’s OCENS.Mail software. Please be kind and keep your replies short.

Calm Sea, Troubled mind,

Posted on May 28, 2015 by March 7, 2016

I can easily accept the fact that we are only traveling at 1.5 kts or that we might not get to the Azores before Pierre’s birthday in August or that the sails are slapping themselves silly. All of this would be bearable if not for the groan of the boom which sounds like a demonic Wagnerian Brunnhilde having a terrible night at the Met. She will just not shut up. We are hoping for more wind and the early death of our soprano. Otherwise things are going well with the watch routine and the repair of various items like the GPS on the radio, the battery monitor, the power output from the engine alternators, rewiring a toilet controller, and trying to figure why the solar remote is not showing output to main batteries. If you don’t like problem solving aboard a sailboat it would be better for you to fly to Europe. Come to think of it, Tom could do that for us… —-

Morning update 5/27

Posted on May 27, 2015 by May 27, 2015

It was a glorious sail for most of the night as we had about 14 kts of wind and semi-flat seas. We were heading northeast at 6 kts. What’s not to love? The wind diminished slowly and by morning we had only about 5 kts of wind and we were moving at a non-tesla speed of 2.6 knots. So, on goes the motor and now we will move directly into the wind and get back closer to the rhumb. See us moving south in the next few hours. We will hope for a wind shift to the north or northwest to save the day. The crew seems happy and content but I always have an ear out for rumbles of Mutiny. Still no fish caught but on the bright side… no birds either. —- This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using OCENS’s OCENS.Mail software. Please be kind and keep your replies short.