FIRST DAY AT SEA - AND IT WAS BLOWING!
Aquila
Alan and Sarah Bennett
Tue 13 May 2008 12:29
|
38:20.00N 76:26.50W
Last night passed with a lot of rain and heavy wind
with Aquila rolling around beam-on to some hefty gusts but we awoke and decided
to 'think about things' before making any firm decisions. So, after some of the
freshly baked bread made yesterday we had a think; the rain was still coming
down and the wind blowing but it was easing off and it wasn't too cold, so we
decided to go for it.
This meant some last minute preparation needed to
be made...the mooring ropes were collected, the water tanks filled (after a very
amusing episode with the skipper attempting to fill the waste tank instead of
the water tank; literally, 'oh ****' came to mind when our mistake was
realised), and then, at 1100, Aquila slipped berth C32 and we said goodbye to
Shipwright Harbour...
To clear Herring Bay we put up the mainsail on the
second reef and set the staysail and with the wind on our port
beam there was some serious movement. Some of the waves were pretty
large (for the Chesapeake!) and the rain was still coming down, but we continued
to 'man up' and carried on. Once rounding Holland Point we were able to
bear away and so the movement settled down - the waves were now coming
pretty much directly from astern and at a couple of points we were surfing down
them as they came upon us. The wind was consistently blowing at 20 knots and
gusting at 35-40 knots at some point. The boat speed broke 10 knots and was
consistently above 7 knots so we were certainly making progress!
Some of the gusts were a bit much so Mother did
stirling work putting in the third reef at the mast and holding on for dear life
and there was some good work at the helm by daddy to avoid the dreaded Chinese
jibe. Lots of trees floating in the bay but strangely no other boats
about!
We arrived at the Soloman Islands in record time
and anchored at Mill Creek in a very sheltered location...now it's just a
question of drying out and warming up! Day one's objective achieved, and
the boat behaved perfectly. And the crew were
magificant!
 |