Where's the damn wind!!

Imagine of Plymouth
Arthur
Wed 5 Dec 2007 17:12
Occifer of the watch's log. Stardate 5th Dec of the year two thousand and seven. On a mission where no man has set fo......
Sorry, got carried away there....
 
Hello to all of you Blog followers of 'Imagine of Plymouth'
Rudy's out and about tweaking this, setting that, so Mark is once again your story teller for the events of the past 24 hours.
Well, what a 24 hours it has been....Not.
Probably not long after the excitement of Robert hauling in a 4.25KG MahiMahi fish on a thin line on the rod, The wind died. I mean died... to absolutley nothing.
 
Meanwhile, the Admiral took up his customary position on his chez longe.
 
While Robert was tentatively trying to weigh the fish, you could see the fear in his eyes, I decided it was probably best to take over and get the knives out, gut it, bone it and fillet it, before any fuss happened. So, duely, it was done. Unfortunately, Arthur had but 2 hours before scrubbed the decks, so he, by the look on his face, was none too amused. But hey, such is life. We had to catch at least one bloody fish and save our selves from being the laughing stock.
 
So anyway. Duely, the wind died to nowt. This enabled dinner to be very civilised. We actually ate on plates, not from dog bowls as we have done since day 1, and very nice it was, if I do say so myself. 3 different dinners practically from 1 very small galley, as some wanted fried fish, some wanted poached en papillotte and of course with Rudy being a non meat muncher, a pizza for the boy.
 
So, then it was into the watch system. A thrill by the minute experience. Not....
 
There was not a moon or star in sight, as there was a thick dark cloud of many squalls covering the whole area and the moon, nearly all gone in it's new moonness, didn't rise till about 4 am.
Dark as hell it was, with storms a plenty, lightning and rain and armed with the reports of 2 or 3 abandoned yachts floating around in the vacinity, a very sturdy watch was required. Apart from the fact that we could hardly see jack .... we somehow managed and came thru the other side unscathed, a bit wet, but onward we plod.
Any hoo, by 6am this morning, Rudy and Mark were bored to hell of hearing the bloody donkey, so decided it was time for action. Up went the flappy white things, and joy, we were moving 4ward under wind power again, and that wasn't from the rear end of Arthur either, although we did have to evacuate the interior yesturday for fear of:
A) Explosion
B) Anhilation
c) 3RD DEGREE BURNS
or
D) just choking to death as he let rip below.
 
Sorry, carried away. Yes, white flappy things, sailing again, donkey off, yes, and we were off again, off to see the wizard, well ok, off to the wonderfull land of St Lucia. While we know that this is only a rally really, we still want to beat the other buggers there, so that we are nearer the bar, hehe!! Up went the Spinnaker and then we were trucking.
Well, I've just found out that Rudy has in fact told you of the tales of last 24hours, so I may have just bored the hell out of you all. Sorry for that, but I thought I would get my 2pence worth anyway.
 
Funniest quote has to be the story about the diesel helicopters. You'll need to read Rudy's report for that one, but it had me in stitches. Watch, what watch.
 
Anyhooo, that's it for now blog pickers..
Tune in same time, next time, for the continuing saga of the intrepid sailboat 'Imagine of Plymouth' and her crop of heathans onboard.
 
Chow for now,
Mark, Arthur, Rudy, Chris and Robert.