Position 17:24.5N 48:51.2W

Mariposa Blanca Move
Skip- Andy Petty. Owner hard at work in office!
Tue 5 Feb 2013 17:20
Tuesday 5th Feb 2013
Log 4734
Noon to noon 120nm (that's better)
GPS to go 901nm (finally in 3 figures)

Hi all,

After a fair run yesterday, all was good overnight until 0600 when Adrian's black cloud brought not excess wind but strangly rotating winds and Mike and I were awakened by chaos and the boat heading north, then east, then south!!!!

It seems the cloud had its own mini vortex under it and the exisitng wind was just killed. It felt as though we were trapped in some kind of weird whirlpool, tying to acheive some boat speed to get out of the cloud shadow. Being very dark and moonless, it was quite interesting for a while but after an hour or two, we escaped and some normality returned (and we sent Ade to bed). This lasted for around 4 hours but then the winds have been variable in direction from SE to NE and in strength but mainly light. With a fair sea running now from the overnight good winds, it has been a challenge to find a semi comfortable direction to head at any sort of decent speed and thus we have tried every sail combination bar storm jib possible, gybed many times and even tacked also. Our daily run has massively improved but had been looking much better until 0600.

Mike and I blame Adrian because just after sunset yesterday, he caust the most ugly fish I have seen - long, black (about 1m) big eyes and the most scary looking teeth you may imagine. Monster from the depths sprang to mind, especially after dark! It fought hard and we thought it would be much bigger. Photos taken this morning will be published for reader help in ID but its a little too bouncy here again now to cope with the several stages needed to get a photo on line.

Please forgive shortened blog today. NB Gremlin still evasive. Boat systems still fully operative. No crates of G&T found floating in the oggin. The first painkiller in Tortola is getting sweeter every day!

The Mariposa Blanca delivery team