En Route to Rabat
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Sun 5 Oct 2008 16:30
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Rabat
here we come - FINALLY
Thank heavens, we
left on our third attempt. We very much enjoyed Portugal but had seen all
we wanted to see and the time was right to leave before marina fatigue set in
and the feeling of entrapment started.
 Our final
Portuguese sunset. Skipper looking delighted
to be at sea. A great shot of what it is all about.
"We do love our time on land visiting
new places and time out at sea is the means to get to the next port of call".
There are 5% of cruisers who spend
95% of their time at sea, only coming to land for supplies and hair cuts etc,
not our cup of tea but their way of life. The other 95% of cruisers ( us
included ) use the sea as the means to get to the next NEW places, new
people and new events in new cultures as I don't feel I am well travelled. The
excitement of sharing with 'my soul-mate and dream catcher'. "What is he
after".....
   The marina water
after the storm at Lagos, cold green sea and
the stunning blue sight I woke up to on Sunday the
5th ( my troll line, through the middle of the photo, helps me judge LEEWAY -
that is the angle between the direction of Beez heading and the direction in
which she is actually moving through the water as a result of being blown
sideways - off course - by the wind )
Why are cold sea green and warm seas
blue ?
 
Winter
Summer
Water in a glass looks clear but if
you lay in the bottom of a swimming pool and look up through the water you will
see it is actually blue. The blue colour of pure water is due to the absorption
and scattering of light by the water molecules. The effect varies with the
wavelength of light: red is the first colour to disappear, while blue persists
into deep waters.
Tropical seas with very pure water
are blue, that is not generally true of the Atlantic in temperate latitudes. The
green sea we usually find around Europe is due to the cooler sea
temperature favouring an abundance of phytoplankton which contain chlorophyll, a
substance that absorbs blue and red light but transmits the green. The same
chlorophyll that makes plants their colour.
   Very nice
progress at this point, steady wind and boat speed. First night at sea sunset.
Skipper with the flag of Morocco, HURRAH.
We left Portimao
at 17:30 and had little wind until my watch at 02:00 when it grew slowly at
first, through Skipper's watch things really started to get a bit out of hand.
Top wind speed was 36 knots, top boat speed 8.1 knots, at this point the sea
took on the feeling of being in a wash cycle so at 10:00 Bear put one reef in
the main ( brought down a bit of the big sail ) wound in half of the genoa ( the
sail at the front of the boat ). This weather coincided with crossing the
entrance to The Med some 80 miles away. After a few hours things began to
settle.
Log book
entry states : 5-6 sometimes 7, occasionally 8. To
explain:
    Force 4 is the perfect sailing
condition. Beez Neez will average 5 to 6 knots an hour, feel very comforatble
with no tipping. Force 8, Beez still feels very safe, tips and rolls with
likelihood of spray down the neck. Reef in main and genoa rolled in to half
size. "Absolutely no desire to see a Force 9 or higher, not without the need for
significant alcohol in large, neat quantities, singing Kumbya My Lord and
adopting the brace position at the top of the stairs where I can wedge myself".
Me neither but we are prepared if we have to, we carry a sea drogue ( a
long rope with lots of cloth funnels to act as brakes, "if this is deployed my
12 litres of Vodka on board will take a huge hit" ). It is true to say that
the wind can be fast on a steady sea but it doesn't take too long for the sea to
heap up, great sailing until it gets lumpy.
  My FIRST EVER TUNA, "OK, so he only weighed one and half pounds, but I
caught him on my mackerel troll". He vomitted his most of
his Krill in a neat pile ( Jump Jet ), more untidily when we gave him his
last drink of Gin. First sight of Rabat.
TUNA unlike nearly all other fish is warm blooded. They can reach a length of
10 feet and weigh over 2000 pounds and it is all muscle. An extraordinary
swimmer that can sprint at 30 knots and can cross the Atlantic from west to east
in 40 days to reproduce, it can dive to a depth of 1000 feet without
suffering from cold. Tuna maintain an internal temperature of 10 to 20
degrees higher than the surrounding water. This allows them to have powerful
swimming muscles and puts their cold-blooded prey at a disadvantage. Their
hunting zones are vast, extending from high latitudes and deep into cold waters.
In order to reduce heat loss, tuna have evolved an effective form of internal
insulation: their warm red muscles are sheathed in "cool" white muscle tissue.
BUT you cannot eat Tuna three times a day..........Heart Attack on a Hook
Eating too much tuna fish is not healthy for your heart! Heavy metals are concentrated in tuna because of the contaminated fish they eat. Tuna flesh is loaded with heavy metals that attack the heart muscle, so the toxicity outweighs any possible health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids. ( comment found on-line ) While eating Tuna
isn't going to kill you directly, the mercury that the bottom feeder fish sucks
up off the ocean floor eventually will. Long before you actually die from
consuming excessive mercury, you will go insane. Mercury can either travel
to your kidneys where it will be processed, or it will go to your brain where it
will slowly cause damage. It is impossible for you to die in one day from
eating massive amounts of tuna, but not three times a day every day. Watching
your weekly intake maybe a good idea ). Farmed Tuna does not
carry the same risks.
"So if Bear comes home
glowing in the dark, unsound of mind you know what I have been up to." But
fortunately I won't notice if I'm mad.
"OK so the one I caught
was just a practise weight, mind you, I don't fancy us trying to land anything
more than 30 pounds, the way this chap fought and vomitted, what would a 100
pound fish vomit on me ? The cockpit looked bad enough at one and a half
pounds". Do you blame him, knowing what is in store for
him.
 
 A lovely
chap came out to greet us about 2 miles off to lead us in. Delighted to
see us. Spoke in French and a little English. The marina is too new to feature
in guide books, Skipper at the entrance. The Tuna made Bear a nice fresh lunch when we tied
up.
All in all a good trip with a bit of
excitement. We plan to make good use of our time here with the 1000 things book
under our arm !!!!
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