Horta to Annapolis.

[lagos36]

In September of 2007, I was part of a delivery crew taking a brand new catamaran from Les Sables, France to Annapolis, Maryland. The first leg was to Horta in the Azores, the next leg direct to Annapolis.
I looked at my personal log book recently and have seen an error in the number of miles logged, for the Horta to Annapolis leg I have 4133 miles logged, the skipper pointed this out at the time when he signed me off, but I didn't have time to change it there and then, I thought I would just change it later, but later obviously never came.
I remember thinking at the time that it was just a case of knocking 1000 miles off, but looking at it more closely that leaves 3133 miles, that still seems like too much.
That leg took us 18 days, it wasn't a particularly fast crossing, we had wind on the nose nearly the whole way there, and did a lot of motoring, I was just wondering if there is anyone among you who has done this journey and if you could give me a more accurate estimate of the distance logged?

[JohnT]

Hi Lagos36, I doubt your skipper took a GC route (2380nm)! If he did, he was not a very smart skipper and could/would have put the crew lives in a bit of danger, never mind the vessel. Try and contact him to give you a few waypoints of the route he took and from there it would be easier to get a more accurate distance for your log book. How could he have signed your log book when he knew the distance you had recorded was way out? He should not have signed a document knowing it was false.

[lagos36]

Hi John T,
what do you mean by GC route? If you mean direct route then yes, that's what we did, I know it is the worst time of year to do that, but that's what we did.
I no longer have the skippers contact details, he was a miserable bugger so I didn't bother to hold onto his details.
We were all in a hurry to leave the boat when he signed me off, he pointed out the mistake and I said I would change it, but didn't have any tippex or anything like that to change it there and then.

I assume then that your figure of 2380nm is a direct course, if so then my estimated figure should be a bit higher as we did a fair bit of tacking.

cheers.

[JohnT]

Hi Lagos36,

GC = Great Circle = shortest route between two points on the earth. This would have take you up to about 40 deg. N, into the path of prevailing westerly winds. Did your course take you anywhere near Bermuda? If so, then the skipper tried to go below any highs, on a more southerly route, which would mean a lot more miles would be added onto the GC route of 2380nm. What size cat were you on?

Do not use Tippex in your log book. Just draw a line through the error and write the correct miles above or below the crossed out number. Remember that your log book is supposed to be a legal document and errors that have been corrected must simply be ruled out and not removed. This allows persons scrutinizing it in the future to see that you are being truthful in correcting an error. Likewise, any error in a ships log must simply be crossed out and the correction added - the crossed out section must always remain readable.

John

[lagos36]

Hi John,
I remember that we did not go over 40 deg. N, another boat similar to ours did go over 40 and hit some bad weather, but they got into port just before us. I can't be certain but I think we got to around 38 deg. N at some point. We did not go near Bermuda either, as I recall we could have used the fuel but were sufficiently far away as to make it a major detour.

The cat was 44ft. Unfortunately I have already tippexed out the 4 and put a 3 there, making it 3133nm, for some reason it stuck in my head that I just need to take away 1000nm, but it still seems like too much.

There was a third crew member, i do have his email and have sent him a message asking if he has the mileage written down.

If he doesn't have the mileage I'm not sure what to do to correct my log book.

Cheers.

[lagos36]

Edit.
I cannot contact the other crew member, his email came back undeliverable, he must have changed it.

[lagos36]

I think I may have worked it out, 4133nm may well have been the total distance covered from France. I have the distance from France to the Azores logged at 1209nm, so if I take that away from 4133 it leaves 2924nm which I think is the correct figure.
Thats probably what I did at the time, in a state of hang over, I put the total distance logged instead of first taking away the 1209nm we covered from France to the Azores.

Its 544nm over your 2380nm GC route, but we had the wind on the nose the whole way so we would have done a lot more miles than a GC route.
It seems about right to me at the moment.

[JohnT]

Yep, that sounds about right if you were doing a lot of beating as you must have done. Now stick it in your log book and get on with enjoying life!

John

[lagos36]

Thanks for your help John, I'll do as you suggest and cross out the previous reading and add the new one.

Cheers.