Wednesday 2nd December (Brindabella)

Brindabella's Web Diary
Simon Williams
Sat 12 Dec 2009 20:38

Day 11

   Dawn, a quick cup of tea as night watches finished and Lini and I stood by expecting a change to come out of my wardrobe. The day was already hot, the winds had calmed and the seas were flatter. Simon however looked approvingly at my full sails, smiled at my boat speed, said I was doing just fine and he’d much rather have a cooked breakfast than change sails. He had to wait!

   I was warned they could go mad if at sea for too long. Yesterday Simon tied some waterproof fabric under my sprayhood saying he couldn’t be asked to put a jacket on in the short warm showers at night. I just hope we don’t get too close to any of the girls; how embarrassing, I’m a sail boat not a tent! Then this morning Simon had to wait for his breakfast while Lini trailed more lines over my stern. She pulled them in hours later muttering grumpily to herself about being too near the full moon anyway and the one that got away must have been a whopper. The end of her line was frayed and the pink wiggly doodah had disappeared. I fear I am the only sane one around now!

   Power management onboard isn’t going quite to plan. The fuel cell shuts down as it’s so hot in the engine compartment, refrigeration is using more power as the sea temperature increases, they are using lots of water indulging in cool showers and we’ve been using my autohelm rather than Humph the Hydrovane as he’s a bit slow to react if waves slew us into a gybe situation. I always have a preventer holding the boom steady but too much pressure wouldn’t be good. They have been lazy and must hand steer more until Porsche and Humph can work together. Luckily I have heaps of fuel to run the engine to charge batteries though.

   This afternoon Si mended the loo door handle which has been open since Gran Canaria and Lini was busy in the galley again being creative with a heap of rapidly ripening bananas. Day faded into night and there’s still no change to my sails.

Breakfast – Bacon, egg, rosti and beans.

Lunch – Vegetable and lentil soup.

Dinner – Steak, jacket potatoes, coleslaw and salad - Banana and butterscotch crunch.