Day 3/4

Gaviota
Mon 10 Jan 2011 13:10
17:11.000N 35:19.458W
 
Distance so far  713nm
 
Shortly after writing the last diary entry the wind picked up to around 25knots gusting 35knots, so, with 3 reefs in the mainsail we were hammering along quite nicely and our average speed increased to over 7 knots. During the last 2 nights the sea has become much wilder with increasing cloud.
 
I completed saturdays night shift to see Captain Syd asking me if I fancied putting up the second genoa before breakfast. As the wind was slowly coming from the east the 2nd genoa was to be put on the starboard side with #1 genoa using the end of the boom therefore acting like a spinnaker but much more practical as both genoas could be used on the port side if the wind shifted back to NE. This was a method patented by Syd on the ARC but took us all morning due to the differance in sizes-The new one is shorter in the luff so we had to raise this in  order to get the big one tight up against the forestay. A combination of that and the easterly wind pushing us along at 7knots made it an absolute nightmare to set up and would have looked amusing to anyone sailing past watching the 2 of us getting soaked and swearing at the bloody thing. If I knew he meant before breakfast the following day I would never had bothered.  
 
The upshot of Syds sail system meant that we were absolutely hammering along. It's quite historic for Captian Syd and his Gaviota as during the 24hour period from saturday midday to sunday midday we racked up a new record of 191miles that gave us an average speed of 7.96 knots. We've now seen 3 other yachts at sea, all of which we've passed like they were stationary. Syd revels in the glory and can often be seen basking in all the praise heaped on him by other boats by radio as we pass them.
 
In other news Lisa seems to be slightly better on the sea sick front. I actually saw her move earlier-probably to get some more Stugeron. She now has the new title of Chief Wildlife Spotter as she seems to be first to spot anything moving in the water. Syd also confessed he's been having a dream where he's throwing pizza at B.A. Baracas!! In my experienced opinion of psycho analysing this dream  I would say it's directly related to trying to get Lisa "I aint getting on no boat, fool" Gwynne onto a boat by hiding Stugeron under the pepperoni in her pizza. I could be wrong. Other stuff has happened too but it gets very nausious writing this while the boats' like a non stop rollercoaster.