Wednesday 24th February
Awelina of Sweden
James Collier
Wed 24 Feb 2016 20:10
The good weather continues and the last 24 hours sailing has been idyllic; beam reaching across slight seas at 7 knots under a full moon. Today the wind is gradually reducing and we are slopping about a bit as the waves always change after the wind but nonetheless it's been clam enough to do more domestic chores. We've had to empty the fridge and find whatever was leaking slime into the vegetables. This all sounds rather domestic and boring however the whole voyage so far has been a learning experience in terms of long distance sailing in the heat.
The fridge is not as well insulated as it could be - it struggles to keep pace with the 30°C + and In addition it's compartments are not really thought out in terms of accessing the contents easily. The "drinks" area in particular is just chest space down into the bottom next to the hull. Tins of drink and milk are kept right at the bottom where it's coolest however to get at them we have to remove everything above - letting in the heat and humidity. The lack of fridge compartments also means that with the ship's motion some of the packed stuff has been bashed together and damaged and leaked all over other things: todays slime was from a rather nice curado cheese from Las Palmas. We intend making some fridge dividers when we get into port.
We'll also provision slightly more fruit next time and plan fewer meals which require a lot of gas and effort to make. The effort is not the issue; it's the heat generated in the cabin and Fiona has in particular struggled with the heat. Even as much as making a pot of coffee can affect her quality of sleep and thus morale. (Today she dropped the cafethiere as well, grr). We've also found that our appetites are quite differently affected by the climate: Fiona has had a week of not wanting to eat much at all while James has the constitution of an Ox and will eat just as much as he did in the UK in winter. (And still not gain weight, some things are just not fair!).
Being covered in salt all the time also affects one's temperature as you can never get truly "dry" before going to sleep. We've tried sleeping on deck for one watch and that worked a treat as it's lovely and cool from about two hours after dark right through 'til dawn. Not starting cooking until after dark is another change that we have made. We're also getting better at rigging shade areas on the boat and have now put the bimini up as well.
Finally long distance sailing can leave you with a sore bottom. You do a lot of sitting on deck or moving around by sliding your backside over the slanted decks and the wear when wearing only shorts seems more than if you were wearing a pair of oilskins. It's a small price to pay for the staggeringly beautiful sunrises and sunsets, the blue blue water and the sitting on deck in next to nothing on night watch hearing the flying fish flop aboard (yes Dad we still wear life jackets!).