Becalmed

ChilliOyster
Dave & Becky Werrett
Tue 2 Dec 2008 21:45
Position 15:44.437N 33:26.359W
December 2nd 2008
 
Well a very odd day today. We seem to have spent the day sitting in the middle of a little atmospheric bubble, we woke up to a very grey sky and very low lying clouds which didn't clear, the heat & humidity was the same but we haven't seen the sun all day. There has been very little wind again - we motored again all night and put the spinnaker up at first light - using that we have pottered along all day at between 3-5knts. Several squalls appeared but then tracked behind us so once or twice we got a little bit of a push form the extra wind the squalls generate.  Still no sign of any other boats
 
As the boat was so stable I decided today was the day for the Roast dinner - so I cooked Roast lamb, roast potatoes, cauliflower, onions & aubergines. It took longer than I thought to prepare and cook so around lunchtime we had some sushi and a glass of wine and then the kids finally badgered us into taking the sails down for an hour so they could have a swim. The spinnaker was snuffed and two lines were dropped out of the back of the boat with fenders on them, my Dave got in first just to check that the boat wasn't going to sail away without him! Even without sails the boat was still doing a knot with the tide and wind pushing it along - so it would be really difficult to keep up with it if you didn't have something to hang onto! The we all jumped in - ensuring that a responsible adult remained on the boat at all times of course! We had a great time and I took lots of pictures - but unfortunately there was no memory card in the camera so we have no record of our mid atlantic dip! I guess we might have to do it again - just to get a photo! ( I have resorted to a picture of the Roast lamb! ) The water was beautifully warm and very clear, when you looked down it was strange to think that the bottom was several thousand metres away. The kids loved it, thought it was the greatest thing yet.
 
The kids are getting a touch of cabin fever I think - lots of squabbles today, well more than usual for anyone who knows my kids. Also it is getting increasingly difficult to get others on the SSB - not sure whether the cloud cover is affecting the signal or whether we are all just to far apart. What we did hear was that the fleet has started to spread out, some boats are relatively close to us but we have not seen any for a while. Everyone is complaining about the lack of wind, in fact one guy said he was going to rename his boat 'Wind Hole'. We are trying to keep to some kind of average so that Dave and Sam have a chance of catching their plane lets hope things change again soon. It is just like a mill pond out there tonight, very gentle, very long swells and hardly a ripple.
 
Watches are difficult to keep concentration when there is nothing to see. However we have heard from some friends on a boat called Mikado. Last night they were past by two yachts and a tanker doing 16knts, so that has added an extra vigilance to our watching tonight! With our AIS system they will easily spot us.

JPEG image