Diatonic finishes Leg(less) in Horta

Diatonic
Anthony Warr
Tue 31 May 2011 14:03

Day 12 30th May 2011 1500hrs 38 50N 31 59W

 

Our growing fan club base is reported to be entering into the thousands - much to the consternation of Lyall, our unpaid PA at ARC who has to forwards our fan mail. More and more realise that Diatonic the under-dog has surpassed all expectations and come good and the satphone is ringing off the hook.  Thanks again to Mary & Jenny, fan club joint presidents who tried to land the Chinook on the foredeck but had to abort as our Hele-Pad was not quit big enough.

 

Description: Description: cid:000501cc1f12$9e0d83e0$0100007f@awe2d34a9fcb3a

First a bit of sensible news of our voyage. We had the most amazing experience last night, moonless and misty, dark and eerie but very bright phosphorescence ,that is green luminous algae shining when the water is disturbed. The wake of the boat was leaving  this cloud of green bright stars in the water and because it was so dark the effect was magnified. Then suddenly a mass of luminous green torpedo’s came haring in towards us - leaving  bright green trails in their wake. We realised they were dolphins when the trails began to twist and turn in our bow wave leaving bright green starlight in their wake – magical. Such a sight must be so rare needing perfect conditions, a completely calm ocean, a completely dark night and lots of Dolphins doing their thing. We felt privileged to have witnessed this amazing green shimmering firework display by the Dolphins which was truly awesome.


A spectacular dawn came with the ocean perfectly calm like a mirror and fabulous reflected colours. The sun began to rise displaying lovely reds in the east behind cumulus clouds, and behind us in the west a kaleidoscope of blues and purples of a beauty never experienced before. All this mirrored in the water as the dark dawn sky turned to black rain clouds. It was truly breath-taking and makes us so glad that the hardships of ocean sailing are completely forgotten.

 

Pauls bit follows, although I hasten to say he has now had his key to the liquor cupboard confiscated.

 

We are now flying along on our Potato Bio-Diesel aided by a crop from between David’s toes. To cultivate these his feet are now raised towards the sun and watered every 2 hours to increase the harvest. We refrained from using them as chips.  I set to and took the last 2 steaks out the freezer for the Steak Night special. This brought back memories of the last time I was on this boat on passage from Crete to Malta. Just serving up steak and chips when the Gods struck and zapped Diatonic's mast with a bolt of lightning....  the auto-helm failed, the wind blew and the Steak & Chips went walk-a-bout.  Seeing white hot metal falling from the sky to the deck, and the boat behaving like a wild thing I had the dilemma of saving the Steak & Chips from the saloon floor or don a life jacket. Wrong choice. Donned the lifejacket and we had to eat off the saloon floor. On this trip we eating off the plates, steaks were delicious although they had been frozen and defrosted 25 times since leaving Bermuda.

 

David is on his last remaining cigarette packet and seems rather relaxed about it - we are worried Mr Jeckyll may suddenly appear. If it is a big problem we may have to inflate the dinghy and tow him behind although the potato crop may suffer. 

 

We are having frequent stops for a swim to cool down, but seeing the occasional fin and dark shapes in the water below us ensures we don't stray too far from the boat or long enough to provide dinner !

 

We don't want to give our position away to the rest of the fleet but expect to be in Horta tomorrow night Tuesday. We have adopted a stealth approach ( the radar reflector isn’t much good and VHF range is 50 metres). Unfortunately ARC staff may have a late night checking us in but please keep the local bar open till about 4am. 

 

The Three Amigo's signing off or a wild time in Horta