Day 14 - A Good day on the water.
Jacana
David Munro
Sat 24 Jan 2009 21:18
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Once again the night time saw Jacana sailing down
the Rhum line making surprisingly good headway with "India" flying at 125
degrees true wind angle. We carried the kite all night and through the
dawn, however, by lunchtime the wind speed was gradually rising and a sudden
squall materialised and started to push the wind well above what was safe for
the light weight spinnaker, We pulled it down just before we were hit by a
series of 20 knot plus gusts, it started to rain and we ran on with only the
mainsail waiting to emerge from the rear the squall and waiting to see what lay
the other side. After 20 minutes the breeze abated and we hoisted the pink &
grey light runner for an hour before the wind started to build once again and
come forward. Up went the light blue reacher screacher and we were off - we
spent most of the afternoon cruising along at 10 knots, spray over the bows -
all was well with the world. (see attached photgraph). Early evening the wind
started to die down again and the weather gribs suggested it would free us
during the night so we hoisted the pink & grey for the evening, bearing off
for 20 minutes for sausage & mash. (& another one of David's
cocktails).
We have noticed that Jacana has made steady but
slow progress up the fleet and for the average of the past three days has
covered more miles towards the finish than any of the other boat still racing.
Over the next two days, we are attempting to line up the last three day run into
Salvador on a good angle for the boat on the predicted weather. We don't want to
venture at this stage too far from the Rhum line particularly if the weather
predictions are not accurate. Today we were supposed to have light winds and we
have been bombing along at 10 knots - not that we are complaining!!!
Another milestone was passed this morning, we are
now into the hundreds rather than the thousands of miles to go. At around
midday, almost exactly 2 weeks to the minute from the start in Cape Town, the
plotter advised us that we had a mere 1000 nautical miles to go until the finish
line. Another excuse for a cocktail and for Chris & David to have an
impromptu game of twister in the cockpit. David has bought with him a CD of
Brazilian music, the closer we get to Brazil the more he plays it, the
record to date is 5 hours non stop on a loop - we will be glad to get there
just to have the music stop!!
The Bimini has been a great success, Bimini man
decides whether we take it down at night or not - to date it has remained up and
has been used as much as an umbrella as a sun shade. We are slightly concerned
at Bimini man's choice of strap to hold it up and there is a side book as to how
long it will remain up before landing on someone's head. E-mail Blog master at
Jacana if you want to place a bet. (see attached photograph)
Chris had his wine ration reduced today for failing
to steer the course the navigator wanted see his reaction in attached
photograph.
Paul's dream of the day;
The Iraquis turned Kidderminster into a Rythm &
Blues club.
Nature watch
A flappy winged bird turned up early this morning,
the first for a few days, I tried to take a picture of it to send to the young
ornothologist Lowe for identification but it disappeared as soon as it
arrived.
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