Azores to England
Gins.pt
Mon 21 Jun 2010 05:23
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Today is Monday, the day when we shall see the land
again. Our check in point into UK will be in Plymouth where we shall
arrive after midnight. We might slow down to enter the channel at
daylight.
These last days the crew was not inspired to
contribute another report so I am back on duty.
We had studied the weather reports from 3 different
sources every day, but the wind situation seemed hopeless. We had some
sailing on Thursday and Saturday and long motoring periods.
Our fuel meter showed less fuel than we calculated,
certainly not enough to reach the closet point - Falmouth Harbour - to refuel.
We put the 30 liters of reserve in the tank, calculated the fuel
consumption of the trip for the 10th time and
decided to start the motor yesterday at noon after having sailed
half the day at speed of the wind 3 to 6 knots in the
direction of France. On Saturday morning we hoisted the Gennaker
(163m2) sail, but after 10 minutes of fast sailing the block on the top of
the mast broke away and
the sail dropped down for 2 mters and
nearly reached the water. We had big
difficulties to get it down as the wind increased in the meantime to 12 -14
knots and the halyard got dammaged and got stuck in the mast.
Marc voluntered to inspect the top of the mast as we could also not lower the
working jib to replace it with the genoa. So 2 deffects to repair in
Eastbourne.
Because of the weather we were not able to
estimate our time of arrival. Messages went out to the family and friend to
evaluate the possible alternatives to catch the
transportation back. Klara has to attend a wedding on Friday in Ruegen, Germany
and Marc has an important meeting on Wednesday in the office. Both are now
relaxed and will leave
GIN'S tomorrow in good time to meet their
commitments, provided the Volvo Penta motor will do its job in the next 20
hours. It seems that we have enough fuel to the
destination.
On Thursday evening we again saw the whales. This
time there were 5, (5-6 long) swimming next
to the boat. One could nearly touch them . They were busy with themselves and seemed not to care about the boat
passing them. We also met a huge turtle and several times got amused by dolphins
jumping out of the water in front to the boat.
In the lat 2 days all visitors dissapeared ,but we
got a "blind passenger". A pigeon with the
rings on its legs decided to take a rest. Somehow it prefers boat to flying and sits on the radar reflector most of the
time and marks the teak deck below. I hope it will not leave permanent
spots
I will sail the last 210 miles to the final
destination Eastbourne alone
with 2 night stops.
I will stop now. The bread maker has just signalled
that the loaf is
ready for breakfast. It smells sooo
good....
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