20. 29N 28.19W We are now on a direct bearing for Antigua.
The butter hasn’t melted yet but we have still turned right! The
eighth day, Saturday, was pretty non eventful and sombre compared to the
jollity of the day before. Everyone seemed reflective and quiet and we
all went about our business of reading and pottering…… we lost two
fish, one bent the rod literally double before it made its escape – lure
and all; the other we reeled all the way in but the line veered towards the tow
generator which released the fish but hung on to the lure!! The wind got
up so we had a hurried evening meal before we had a couple of spats of rain,
enough to bring in the cushions in, and it was thought that we should double up
on my watch in case of trouble. In the event poor old Bennett was on
watch from 6 to midnight, partly with Oscar, then Michael helped me out on mine
until 2 am, then Paul from 2am to 6 am. That system definitely cannot
continue!! Some news of other boats, one lost a genoa over the side but
after after a two hour struggle retrieved it in tact. Another lost theirs
but on retrieval it was wrecked. Big Blue, the only other catamaran
besides Hakuna Matata, stayed behind in Lanzarote to receive their air
conditioning unit which they had paid for up front. It has finally
arrived and is defunct……… how horribly frustrating for them
to miss the camaraderie of the Rally and still not have a.c. Neva are on their way with an iridium phone – no SSB
– each day we hear a little news of someone.
The ARC started today so 250 odd boats, some J Class will be heading in
our direction…….
Today was ‘one of those days’ we could all do without
– everyone tired to start off with – 20 knots of wind – waves
8 to 10 feet high – very swelly - it triggered off with a dreadful smell
in our cabin which turned out to be the residual of the blocked pipe which had
found its way under the floor boards – then Michael noticed that the
propeller for the tow generator was missing – our theory is that a large
fish went for the attached still lure from the day before (We are now looking
for a shark with no teeth!). Seriously though, that generator gave us
around 8 amps per hour (enough to keep the fridges going). Luckily we
have another spare propeller so we reefed in the Twistle to slow down the boat
and dug deep into the lockers at the back to find the spare only to be hit by a
large following wave which filled the locker (non draining) so that will be a
nasty soggy rusty mess by the time we get to Antigua. Then Michael caught
a fish twice the size of the first which was marvellous but in a way we could
have done without the pandemonium which accompanies these events! Then a
huge wave just dolloped itself over the back and straight into our cabin and
bed – ugh! Picture the scene, our loo upside down whilst we were
still trying to find the source of the smell, sea water everywhere in the aft
cabin, all the bedding billowing on deck trying to dry it out, huge seas,
our windiest day, Michael heaving up and down trying to gut the fish, Oscar
crashing around in the kitchen trying to cook his next culinary delight, Paul
bottom up in the back lockers, and then he noticed the still furled in Twistle
rig had destroyed one running block mid way up and was in danger of disinter
grating mid air! Can you imagine? So rocking and rolling repairs
were done to the rigging and then Michael noticed the Hydrovane bracket bolts
had worked loose and we were in danger of loosing that too and of course our
self steering mechanism………more rocking and rolling
repairs…….then Paul got slung across the boat and hurt his hand,
arm and leg……..and then the saloon table (now lowered to
accommodate Michael as his bed) collapsed as well……Bennett to the
rescue with Oscar……..all feeling very sorry for
ourselves……..
I felt that a cup of tea and a distribution of my revered Mon Cheries
was called for! And a comforting digestive biscuit! The fish duly got
cooked – I even tried to make chips but they weren’t having it
either and ended up a sort of soggy, oily goo – hey ho!! Our bed is
remade, a challenge in itself in these conditions, the dinner eaten the washing
up done, the Twistle unfurled and we have all licked our wounds. As night
draws in early (at 6.00pm in this part of the world) we have reefed in the
Twistle as much as possible to ensure an uneventful night and hope to resume
our normal watches and sleep patterns. We are all exhausted.
The positive news is that we covered around 175 miles in the last 24
hours and have been surfing off waves at 11 knots over the ground (as opposed
to through the water) – through the water includes other factors like
tide with or against you and current with or against you. We are all well, no
serious injuries, the weather is great compared to what it could be with the
wind in the right direction and tomorrow is another day.
The bad news is the loo still pongs!!
