24:46.00N 19:11.00W
Hello all,
The time honoured tradition when sailing this sort of route from Europe to
the Caribbean is to sail south-west from the Canaries until reaching the
approximate latitude of the island you intend to visit, then turn right and
sail due west until making a landfall. As we are a traditional bunch on
Catacaos we intend to do the same.
As the wind has been fairly consistently from the NE we have had to gybe
down our route rather than sail directly SW. We gybed this morning and have
been sailing pretty much due south since then. With a single reef in the
main we have been making an average of about 7.5kts today with peaks well
into double figures. Something Graham and I had forgotten since our delivery
of a catamaran from Tortola to Tahiti in 1995 was just how noisy they are
particularly when down below. Every wave resonates through the boat, they
slam into the underside of the saloon cabin and everything on the table
jumps a few inches. The boat continually creaks and groans in protest and
you can feel the hull flexing under your feet. They are fast though. Graham
fished out the chart 'North Atlantic Ocean - Southern Part' today and it
shows the track we took in 1994 in a 50ft monohull called 'Rule One'. We are
currently neck & neck in this virtual race against our last crossing
together.
We are slowly getting used to the watch system we have introduced which
shares responsibility of the boat and Lucas between the four adults on
board. We do two hours on and six hours off during the night and a slight
variant during the day to give Graham and Lorraine a little more time with
Lucas.
I've just come off watch at 2000 hrs ships time, starboard engine is
recharging the batteries, the water maker is replenishing the water we used
for our first showers today, the SeaMe (a device that makes us look like a
container ship on any other ships radar) is indicating there is a ship
around but it's too far for us to see it (I love that gadget and also the
radar has become my new best friend!). Once this blog has been sent I'll get
my head down before being back on watch at 0200 hrs. Such is life at sea.
Thanks for all the emails we have been receiving, and we apologise for not
answering the phone but the noise of the boat tends to drown out the
chirping of the phone (its volume has now been turned up to 11!).
Regards from all aboard Catacaos.
Gareth.
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