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Knotoncall
Wed 29 Nov 2017 20:29
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Knot on Call Blog 24 / 25th November The ups and downs of Flying Fish
Happily sailing along at 2 in the morning admiring the
stars, a wet wallop on the back of the head, Joyce lets out a yelp only to find
a stunned flying fish squirming on the deck. The next night it's Johns turn, he
was lucky it hit the hood frame and spayed him with fishy water before landing
on the deck. The sea is alive with them especially in the morning on the
starboard side - Is that because they see the shadow of a boat approaching and
decide to flee?
We had some problems on Tuesday morning when the brake
caliper pads locked partially on the propeller shaft drive. It is a sailing boat
I hear you say so what's the problem. The problem is that the prop doesn't
feather so slows the boat down, overheats the brakes, may damage the gear box
and does present a fire risk. After 4 hours of scratching there heads down
in the engine compartment, the techies in the form of Graham and Phil seem to
have solved the problem with a high tech solution of cutting up a business
card and using it as a shim between the pads and caliper - fingers crossed it
lasts the distance. What smells and looks like red paint? - Blue
Paint. We thought it was funny, must be the way Phil tells it!
The rest of the day was delightful down wind sailing in
the 20 knot trade winds surfing down the back of some of the rollers - good
progress made by all, we did lots and lots of miles and unusually, in the right
direction! Sadly better progress was made by our competitors who still had a
full compliment of headsails. We managed 8-9 knots most of the time
but they could sail at least 2-3 knots faster than us into double
figures and at a much better angle to the wind.
After another good sailing day we now face another
nights sail rolling along on the crest of a wave with our
friendly but noisy ships ghosts. The brown cow in the bilge mooing constantly at
night, the clank of chains and the banging of pipes at 3 in the morning.
Insanity approaches, oh no its only Joyce rocking to the Who. Turns
out the manic pipe knocker was Graham trying to deal with a blocked soil
pipe (at 3 in the morning!!!). Still trying to locate the cow and the chain
gang.
At this point in the trip you realise where you are, or
aren't. In mid Atlantic, 1600 miles to go, 1300 miles from the Canaries, 1000
miles from West Africa and 1000 miles from Brazil (surprisingly). Ships routine,
those not on watch are in bed by 8 for a kip, definitely a new time frame.
Talking of time we are now 2 hours behind Greenwich but have elected to stay on
GMT, its like having summer time again but warmer and stays dark in the morning.
The bananas are now history except these 2 prime specimens below and tomorrow
Triff will attempt to drink a banana smoothie straight from the fruit without
first peeling it. If successful he will be the first person in the history of
the world to do this mid Atlantic - Bon Courage mon ami.
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