Sunday 27th June (Lini’s Journal)
Brindabella's Web Diary
Simon Williams
Thu 1 Jul 2010 14:29
later than planned that we left a misty, damp and grey Flores and set
a course for Horta on Faial. A VHF call from ‘Rapau’ was a bit of a
surprise; they had picked us up on AIS as they approached Lages. We
hoped it was just a fuel issue in light winds that had delayed them
and not problems as they left Bermuda the day after us and were
originally heading for Horta. We hope to catch up with them in a few
days in Horta and hear how things went.
Within minutes of leaving in the thick mist, Flores had disappeared
behind us and I shall unfortunately always remember this beautiful
island with a grey blanket. The forecast today was no rain, sunshine
and light N-NW winds: We had drizzle and W F4-5 winds. Undecided
whether to hoist the Parasailor or the mainsail we pulled out the
headsail to see how things settled once the winds were clear of the
headland. It was now gusting up to 18knots so the Parasailor lines
were tied to the bow and out came the mainsail: Porsche is not easy to
drop in strong gusty winds as we found out 6months ago.
And so we tracked onwards sailing between 5-6knots in F4-5 winds
from the starboard quarter in two tone grey with visibility not
exactly perfect. ‘Sareda’ called on VHF reporting similar conditions
two hours ahead. The day felt dull and strange, especially with a
night at sea ahead of us.
I escaped the damp and went below to play in the galley. It’s now
three and a half weeks since I last provisioned and the last of the
remotely interesting vegetables went into last night’s teriyaki beef
stirfry. I made lentil soup for lunch, yoghurt which I usually do
every few days and baked some delicious fat free ‘galantes’! There was
no escaping carrots and cabbage tonight!
We napped in the afternoon ready for night watches tonight, both
sleeping a little longer than planned. Dinner took a little longer too
and then Si decided to change the sail plan for the night and pole out
a goosewinged headsail. Needless to say we didn’t start watches until
very late so decided to change our usual system. I unfortunately then
had toothache and with rattling sails in dying winds didn’t sleep at
all. At change of watch we gave up with noisy sails and motored. I
left Si sleeping for the rest of the night as I knew he’d be wanting
to be on watch with land approaching. At 7am I grabbed a couple of
hours with Faial close but still hidden in the mist.