Monday 21 Jan Position 26:47N 021:14.3W
Mariposa Blanca Move
Skip- Andy Petty. Owner hard at work in office!
Mon 21 Jan 2013 17:10
Log 2959
GPS dist to BVI 2442 nm
Noon to noon run by log 125nm
The night saw lighter winds and eventually, smoother seas!! At last we could move around a little witout need to hang on with 2 hands all the time. It seemed like this point would never be reached but it became more comfortable than anyime since leaving the Mar Menor. The day gave us NE veering ENE F4 and we have made good daytime progress, sometimes SW and sometimes W. Now trying to go down to 26N where the slightly lighter elements of the forthcoming blow are most likely to be. We have a SW going current of around 0.5Kt to help.
Skies have been grey all day but I guess not as Cornish as Jan has been having in Spain. Still quite chilly on deck and thermals at night time remain the order. Mike gets out his shorts in hope but is still in jeans (inside which he found one of Adrian's squidgy squid fish lures today, much to the amusement of the rest of us).
Yesterday evening as darkness fell and straight after supper, was rather like an episode of "Last of the Summer Wine" onboard this boat as 3 old and very tired men began to have an in depth discussion about the pros & cons of washing up the dishes in sea water. From "do we really need to use sea water at all" to can we use soap, how to clean the grime off the washing up bowl afterwards and including an in depth look at how to actually get the sea water from the sea to the galley sink (or bucket in the cockpit, which Adrian found a distasteful idea!!). All good fun really and it did highlight why MIke makes better coffee than Adrian and that is because Adrian had been drawing tank water for the kettle, not using the bottled water we bought for the purpose.
For readers who are not aware, we are on a boat with not very generous sized water tanks so we loaded 250l mineral water just for drinking in Tenerife and these are stowed around the boat in 5l containers. Not only is water a controlled item, but electricity also. We have 2 solar panels to help charge batteries but they did not acheive so much today as it was so grey outside. WE thus have to run the engine twice daily for around an hour, just to charge the batteries. Fuel for the engine is also limited by a small tank so we loaded an additional 115l in plastic jerry cans in Tenerife. Somewhere on this trip we expect to encounter an odd day with no wind at all and hence conservation of fuel is essential.
As a consequence, LED lighting is being used as much as possible at night time but we are also running the fridge and freezer for now to conserve the fresh rations we acquired in Tenerife. Thereafter it will be tins, tins and more tins!! I sense a competition coming for culinery success using pasta and tins of something. Fortunately we should be OK for another week on the frsh food.
Mike and Andy are in charge of their own tobacco stores and issues to ensure supplies are enough to reach the destination.
Adrian's second day of fishing has been a waste of effort, despit ehis vaaliant attemts to sink the lure below the water by using a potato tied to the line. Mike and I think Paul Williams would like to offer us a a tip at this point??
Hello to everyone at Saltash Sailing Club where I was a member for just a year before moving to Spain and where I gather many of Mike's friends have been checking out our progress. Mike (Aka David Niven) says Hi to you and to all his worldwide fan club!
Tony Newling Ward- have you any clue as what just what is about to hit your front doorstep in Tortola??
The boat is behaving technically, apart from first the clock, then 24 hrs later the barometer, which each lost their respective glass faces for no apparent reason. Both faces have been salved and bonded back with 2 pack epoxy and no harm done.
We have seen only 1 ship heading NE this afternoon, throughout the last 24 hrs. No fish, mammals and 1 little bird. No stars at night due to grey clooud so it feels like a big big empty world out here. That probably means we will be putting it all to rights over "sundowners" this evening.
Some housekeeping jobs have been completed as a seaman's work is never done, no doubt there will be more tomorrow.
All the best from us all
The Mariposa Blanca delivery team