Final Reckonings

Vega
Hugh and Annie
Sat 23 Jan 2016 19:30
The night before last we were motoring frantically towards hot showers and cold beer; today of course the wind has returned and we are trying to slow down so as to time our arrival at Jolly Harbour to be during the day tomorrow (Sunday). I could have briefed the crew on the virtues of patience but Antigua fever has taken over and our arrival time is being recalculated every five minutes to ensure not a second of shore time is missed.
What is interesting (to me at least) is that for a given wind of, say 10 - 15kts, it takes quite a lot of effort to get our average speed above five knots. At the same time it also seems that it takes an equal amount of effort to keep the speed below four knots. We now have only the genoa out with two reefs in it and we are still doing 4.5kts. We were only making 5 to 6kts yesterday with the both mainsail and full genoa - albeit the wind was a tad lighter. This seems to confirm our experience that more sail area does not necessarily mean a proportionate increase in speed but may well result in more discomfort and wear and tear. It also puts into perspective the speed of a rowing boat travelling at around 3kts. It seems that once you have built up momentum the wind, tide and current will keep you going to a significant extent.
So, only 100 miles to go and we can reflect upon what we have learnt from this experience.
Firstly it is possible for three people to co-exist in a space of 37ft x 12ft for the best part of a month without anyone being thrown overboard. It has been great having Steve with us and we thank him for  his boundless enthusiasm and wonderfully large range of music. It has made for a more comfortable watch pattern than with just two of us and with he and Annie doing most of the sail handling given Annie more deck work than might otherwise have been the case.
There have been low points for Annie, largely as a result of periods of not sleeping well which is a real problem still to be addressed. Nevertheless the overall experience appears not to have been as bad as feared but no doubt Annie will enlighten us in her report soon.
We had concerns about not bringing enough in the way of food provisions. However we have eaten well throughout. It is just not practicable to cook four course gourmet meals under way despite our cookery book suggesting otherwise. The pressure cooker is wonderful and there will now be one in Bristol. We had less long life fruit juice than we thought and could have done with more fresh fruit and vegetables - oranges and onions in particular. Perhaps more pasta sauces and long life meals and maybe more night time comfort snacks. However, these would be nice to have refinements rather than missing essentials. It is possible to have fresh fish for supper.
Tom Cunliffe once wrote an article for Yachting Monthly about yacht ovens. He castigated ovens with doors that when lowered pivoted the whole cooker on its gambles so that the oven contents shoot out. He was scornful of cookers that allow the knobs to heat to the point of melting and of ovens in which the temperature is almost impossible to regulate. He picked out one model that typified everything that could be wrong with a yacht oven - ours!
The second reefing line - the one we use the most - has broken and the tail disappeared into the boom. This means that the genoa furling line, mainsail halyard, cruising shute halyard and now a reefing line have all needed to be replaced. Continuous sailing imparts huge wear on the lines and halyards and when they are all five years old it seems they are particularly vulnerable. We will be installing more means of reducing chafe and replacing more of the lines than have thus far broken.
We use more control lines at the same time than we are used to but don’t have enough means of securing them all when under load. Keeping most of the lines out and ready for use is not such a good idea as it causes cockpit clutter and when you need them they are often tangled or reeved the wrong way, particularly the ones that have more than one use.
The time flies and when you are constantly preoccupied with sail handling, managing equipment, running repairs and catching up on sleep there is little time for anything else. Reading sends you (me) straight to sleep but we did manage the first poem of the day yesterday - The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, read by me and endured by Annie and Steve. As they have so charitably pointed out, it is a poem about suffering. I could have saved valuable stowage space by leaving the guitar at home.
There is precious little wildlife on view. Whether that is normal because it is elusive or because there just isn’t any we can’t tell but, if the latter, it supports the contention that there is a lot less than there used to be.
The boat always rocks the most violently the moment you need it not to.
Sunsets and sunrises are very similar - both a lovely orange with blue sky and creamy orange clouds - just like the old nautical paintings. Sunrise of the day below.