Flying incidents and curry on the floor
gale-at-sea
Humphrey Gale
Sat 12 Jan 2013 20:17
Supper this evening was curried chicken. The wind was starting to blow up and a rainy squall decided to force some of us down below into the saloon for supper. Sussanne had just got her plateful from the galley and had almost sat down safely behind the table to safely wedge herself in when a wave hit us on the side. She was catapulted across the saloon about 9 ft from one bench seat to the other managing to execute a 180 degree turn, so landed safely on her bum on the cushions. The plate stopped halfway across the table as it hit a handle where I grabbed it but the rice, potatoes, mango chutney and curry carried on in pursuit of Sussanne and hit the floor milliseconds after she had sat down. No damage to her, or the boat luckily. There were a couple of kind polite words like elegant and graceful but the the reality was nothing of the sort. Dramatic and spectacular, for sure - Elegant and graceful, no way! Later Sarah was on watch at 10.00 pm, in the dark, and there was another flying incident as she was hit in the head by a small flying fish - quite shock while she was minding her own business. I came on deck at midnight for the start of my watch to be greeted immediately by another flying fish that had landed in the cockpit. I did not throw it back in - he is for breakfast!
We are travelling almost due west en route to Cartegna, Columbia.This is night 2 and we have been at sea for about 40 hours. We are taking a big loop around the north western tip of Venezuela because a combination of relatively shallow water off the north of Venezuela and the sometimes strong easterly trade winds at the this time of year can create a very choppy and dangerous sea. We have opted for day or more extra at sea rather than risk the dangerous seas.