Thursday 3-7-14
JABA
Basil Panakis
Thu 3 Jul 2014 13:21
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41:40N 19:59W
This is after the SPOT. Normally I do this first thing
in the morning. It was so grey, damp with almost nil viz. Now it is a bit warmer
the seas have flattened and the wind dropped. Yesterday we were getting 18-20
kn, I reduced sail for a comfortable night and lost pointing ability hence the
drift to east.
Northwood predicting strong winds for 3 days but they do
not seem to be coming this far south. Baro at present is 1030. There is a trough
that might come my way on Saturday.
Fastnet 1993. I think I split the crew on this one as
the smokers and non smokers. John T was in the team and I gave him an option as
to which job he wish to do. He opted for the deck and he got drenched every time
he went forward. We still had problems with the engine and only Peter was aloud
to start and stop it for charging the batteries. We were anticipating some bad
weather, put the blade up, cranked it in with the handy billy and off we went. I
had John T again in a later Fastnet and also came and worked for Britannia as a
skipper and took him on at the Southampton Boat Show as part of my Security
Team.
Two boats by the Lizard no wind, Martin Lewis was about
100 yards ahead. I asked my crowd whether they wanted to beat them to the finish
line. So we put the spinnaker and overtook them. We overheard that we were doing
the wrong thing...We beat them, at the restaurant that evening we were singing
"Land of Hope and Glory" and they thought we were rubbing it in.
Later in the Solent we caught up with them and put the
tape recorder on with our hymn "Land of Hope and Glory" and they started pelting
us with eggs, tomatoes, whatever they had, soon we reciprocated. They had a
videographer onboard and I managed to get a copy of the VHS tape, it is very
good.
Another great year and race.
Later Martin bought his own boat and went around the
world with his wife. I met him once since then and had a few circular letters
from him, he now lives in Guernsey.
Thanks to Jackie's remedies my wrist is fine. Now I will
have to start on others for my other ailments.
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