To SL Day 3 - 6
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Wed 27 Feb 2019 06:00
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To Sri Lanka – Days Three to
Six
  Day Three, Saturday 23rd February. I
got up at ten to another idyllic day. In the last twenty four hours we have
slowed due to wind speed dropping and current change but still managed 113.1 nm.
now trundling along at 4.8 knots and that’s not too shabby. We both feel fully
in the swing of our four hour shifts and Bear happily prefers to sleep in the
cockpit during his day off-watch and goes to our bed from two till six – my
favourite shift. The night hours are normally serene and my current audiobook
Shogun (nearly fifty-three and a half hours), listening to such an epic has my
watch fly by, to the point I sometimes hope Bear oversleeps..... Talking of
sleep, it is now of historic importance that the skipper can
sleep in a crop of stinging nettles, on a bed of clothes pegs and any
combination others would find onerous - save for with slitherers or in water. I
settle quite well and get about three and a half hours of decent sleep, once my
pillow has been moulded to perfection, my back is wedged against Bear’s pillow
(which is against the bedroom wall) and Beds is tucked under my arm.
Sunset
is a special time of my day. Bear asleep beside me, God is in His Heaven
and all is right with the world. I put the engine on at twenty past eight to
help steer as the sea was chopping up a bit and we rocked more side to side, all
well............until............seconds before I handed over the comms at
twenty-two hundred a sharp, sudden squall hit, a mahoosive wave got hold of
Beez by the hips and her bottom shot leftward. The autopilot chose at
that moment to give up. The genoa flapped, engine on and all back to rights.
Autopilot soothed and switched back on, nudda, nunca. 'ELLO
POLLY!!!!! Testing! Testing! Testing! Testing! This is your nine (ten in
our case) o'clock alarm call! Mr.
Praline: Now that's what I call a dead parrot.
Owner: No,
no.....No, 'e's stunned! Our autopilot was not stunned, it was indeed quite
dead.
We decided four hours on in the now
rougher sea would be too tiring and Bear settled to the first of two hours on
watch. Twelve shifts a day until we get in on the 27th or forty-one shifts each
to do..........Some may say character building, I would like to whip the calves
of that man until they bleed profusely. But it does show how the perfect passage
can change on a dime........
  Day Four, Sunday 24th
February. I came on at ten, 110.9 miles in the last twenty four hours. Two hour
duties maintained but the sea has decided to swing between slight and two metre
swell, two waves and then a big one. Engine on, we rolled the genoa in and Bear dangled over the autopilot in the back lazarette,
physical connections all look OK. A fishing boat detoured from his track and charged toward us,
a habit they seem to have. Seeing us aboard it mooched back to its
course.
    Deciding we needed a
little bit of cheer, we did the Flag Ceremony a few
days early. The Indonesian flag somewhat scruffy
now.
 Bear took the wheel
and I went below to strip all our ‘stuff’ from the office to allow access for a
closer examination of the autopilot. A couple of hours and I have to look through from the sea berth side. He
took the wheel and I moved all the spare sail etc. A total of six hours of
poking, a new sensor fitted and a couple of sat phone calls to Mark (our
wonderful electrickery man) and .............drumroll. NO. Actually what was
happening was Bear had to guess the angle and it was too far out for the
commissioning to be able to align as it should. Bear went to bed spent,
exhausted and not a little dejected. I was fed up for him and as it happens, you
get sent something that gives back strength and it was in the shape of two smiling chaps who broke from the pod of twelve giving
me this quick point-and-shoot moment. Normally and had Bear been in the cockpit
I would have rushed to the pointy end and filmed the gang at play and taken
loads of pictures. So, just this one but how it lifted my spirits.
 Another fishing boat headed for us but as the sea is so rolly it
would not be safe for anyone to try and come any closer. Waving is it,
really.
 It is my very fortune
to have such a joyful skipper, who always manages a
smile no matter what. Bear gave Beez a good
talking to about her hissy fits and that whatever is going on is
not of our doing. She responded by enabling
the big fridge to spring back into life.........
   I enjoy my sunset and come on duty at ten the next
morning with the smell of rain in the air.
  Day Five, Monday 25th February. I think these two
pictures show the difference between a contented purr of
rest and a deep, shattered, much needed sleep.
121.6 miles done despite all the kerfuffle. A cloudier day as I took watch.
After lunch I put the ‘stuff’ away in the office and sea berth best I could with
being chucked about a bit. Just as we think we have settled Bear’s face appeared
at the door, dropped, the big fridge has packed
up. Oh no. Overnight much rougher sea and I faced two squalls. By
the time my watch was over my shoulders felt quite shaky and I was only too
happy to fall into bed.
   Day Four, Tuesday 26th February. A slow 107.3 was
recorded at ten o’clock. This two hour business if far from our enjoyable norm,
it seems all we do is sleep or eat. The odd wave gives us a bit of a soaking and a few
short rainy spells but other than that the plod goes on.
  We’ve
seen much of my sleeping habits what about a shot of
you. Well, hat has to go on now and beak
slathered against a fearsome sun – hope I don’t adopt full
beakitis............
    Our final sunset on this
passage somehow gave me much needed strength, so much so and with a terrific bit
of Shogun, I managed a four hour shift. Bear had really needed the rest and took
no nagging to go and lay down once more when he had appeared at the two hour
point. Teamwork, marvellous. At six on our
arrival day we had completed 860 miles.
ALL IN ALL TIRING AND SUCH A
SHAME
SUCH A
DISAPPOINTMENT |