Day 10 and exciting night sailing

gale-at-sea
Humphrey Gale
Fri 30 Nov 2012 18:00
Lat 16.2N Long 54. 47W Friday 30th November

Yesterday we changed the heading and sails to board reach from a goosewing on a dead run which has been good for the previous 6/7 days ( for non yatchies - a dead run is the wind is directly behind the boat and is known as running with the wind with the head sail out one side and the main sail out the other side, hence goosewing). Last night, I came on watch at 1.00 am,the wind was blowing strongly and we were wooshing through the water at 7 to 8 knots in a relatively calm sea, almost a full moon, some clouds. I stayed on deck after my watch till dawn at 7.00 am listening the The Who LIve at Leeds on my ipod. It does not get much better than this.

Early in the watch, a commercial vessel loomed into view and I needed to change course to avoid passing too close to it coming almost directly towards us That is only the third vessel we have seen in 10 full days - big excitment - and the first commercial vessel since leaving sight of land at Cape Verde, the other 2 were sailing yatchs also crossing east west

We have sweepstake in sealed envelope on our arrival time at Nelsons Dockyard in Antigua - $10 in the kitty, winner takes all - and probabaly will be required to be in the chair for the celebratory drink in the bar on arrival