Blog 26. At Sea. 08.18.35S 119.05.95W

Alcedo
David Batten
Sun 13 Mar 2016 14:25
Just a brief report to say The Ship's Boy insisted that we try goose- winging on her watch, as in her other character as Toad from Wind in the Willows, she was wanting more speed and a different sail plan to look at. Well done Toad, the Genoa has managed to tolerate wind anywhere from the beam to dead aft and, if we can keep the staysail filled on the other side as well, we can keep up our speed and make our course, even with the wind coming from the East. We managed to continue goose-winged all night and made better progress than the rest of the fleet, even Chilli Bee. We are now approx 1185 nm from Hiva Oa and planning the next celebration, i.e 1000nm to go.

We did catch a fish this morning, a long, thin one that we could not identify. As it looked pretty unattractive and did not have much meet on it, we threw it back. Will Poseidon punish us for our ungrateful attitude and send us no more?

Life on board goes on as you would expect. The Skipper walks the decks twice a day, checking the rigging etc. and throwing the day's quota of flying fish back int the sea. He has done the extra hour on the helm to cover the 25 hour day resulting from changing the clocks. Those who wear them are on their third Scopoderm patch, all are feeling well, vegetables have had their daily check for health and menus have been planned for the day by the cooks.

We are still not transmitting well enough on the SSB to participate in the roll calls and radio checks, but Peter on Carango has a plan for trying specifically to contact us tomorrow.

Keeping our fingers crossed that all is well at home.

Alcedo

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