The Beast is tamed (well almost)
Cat-man-do
Thu 29 Nov 2007 23:54
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Some of our "regular" readers will be aware of the
slight problems we've been having with a wild sausage we have on board.
Well, this morning after flying it aloft for several hours and it behaving
itself rather nicely we needed to take it down as there were rather more squalls
in the area than it than we'd have been comfortable with had we still been
flying it. So with a little trepidation we set about the task and it was all
going quite swimmingly until the very last moment when the sheets (ropes that
normally tie the beast down and run to the back of the boat) all went
flying straight through their respective pulleys and threw themselves under the
boat. Luckily there were no engines running at the time as this can be a
huge problem if things get stuck around the propellers. After the customary
jumping up and down and generally cursing things in general we set about getting
the ropes out from under both hulls and the width of the boat. Fortunately they
weren't too difficult to get out and we were soon on our way again. We did have
a cracking run this morning down the side of a squall where the winds picked up
and we romped away at up to 10knots. It's been a day of scattered squalls
some being quite intensive the last one being about 9 this evening, when it was
decided the sausage needed to put away ("here we go again" I hear you say)
However, guess what? on this occasion whilst not being of racing crew
speed, all went well without a hitch. It's now about midnight whilst I write
this and all's well with the world.
Howard has been practicing his guitar
skills and is making steady progress, with all of us picking it
up and having a pluck occasionally.
Otherwise you'll be pleased to know a much quieter
day, and the feedback we're getting from home is that we're not as far back in
the pack as we thought we were i.e at the back. We're not entirely sure where
the Essex boys are, having initially thought they were well ahead of us, it
would appear that maybe we have a slight edge on them. Maybe our race is not yet
run.....
Has the beast finally been tamed?
To be
continued
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