Finally heading West

ChilliOyster
Dave & Becky Werrett
Sun 30 Nov 2008 04:35
 
Position 17:32.604N 27:24.439W
 
Well we finally decided we had gone far enough south and so turned the boat and pointed her at St Lucia! I must admit it feels good to be heading west at last, but we may still have to head further south yet as there is a low in the middle developing and we may need to get beneath it.  I was listening to 2 old timers chat on the SSB radio earlier - and they have obviously done quite a few ARC's/atlantic crossings - and they said it was unprecedented to have to go so far south to pick up the trade winds, it has definitley added at least 400 miles to our trip, maybe more before we are done.
 
Dave and I are currently on late watch till (2-8am). We had a lovely evening, we had ten minutes peace sitting at the bow with a glass of white wine watching the sun go down. Both sea and wind were very calm so we decided to leave the chute up - we went to bed around 7pm as but I could feel the wind picking up so I kept getting up to 'check'! By 1am we were doing a constant 9 knts with the chute so we decided it was time to get it down, this would be a problem if it were just Dave & I as it requires brute strength to snuff it - but with "WIlson the winch" on board we had it down relatively easily and now we are skimming along at 7.5 knts with just the Genoa out.
 
So all well and good on the good ship Chilli Oyster - tomorrow am we will celebrate our first 1000 miles and at 1pm  we will celebrate our first 7 days at sea, I may even cook a roast dinner! No fish today but fridge still full from last 2 days, I cooked a lovely fish pie tonight with the remains of the monster mahi mahi. We may have the blue fin for breakfast! General health and well being are also better today - Dave still coughing and grolching like Compo, and I have been off colour all day but I fell better today than yesterday, Jordan gone downhill tonight with same thing but Sam & Indy better and Dave W showing no signs of fatigue or malaise. Molly shitting for england so all good really and feeling much better than yesterday. I also managed to get a few hours sleep last night so seem to have narrowly averted spiralling down into hysteria and mild panic about enormity of journey!
 
A further morale boost is the light I have just seen off our starboard stern - the first one in 2 days so that is always encouraging - I know from looking at the other boat postions that there must be quite a few within a 30 mile radius, but I do like to be able to see them! The seas have also settled a little, or maybe I have just got used to the motion, you still can't put anything down but you don't need to wedge yourself sideways in bed!
 
Had a bit of excitement earlier - the bow spit that we had welded on in lanzarote to help us fly the cruising chute sheared off in mid flight! Jordan noticed it straight away and the crew jumped into action and responded really quickly, it was a great team effort especailly as we now don't leave the cockpit without lifejacket and safety lines attached.   We didn' t lose it but it is no longer usable so we will be flying chute with the pole for the rest of the trip.
 
 
 
 
 
 

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