Re: Day 3 of Lazy Dawn's ocean passage
Lazydawn
Wed 23 Nov 2005 13:52
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Another 100 miles under our belt but unfortunately
still no sign of the Trade winds. The winds remain light and variable and we
have had to resort to a couple of hours of the 'iron mainsail' to keep our
sanity. Later in the day we flew the 'parasailor' (spinnaker) for our second
stint since leaving. She was holding beautifully so we elected to keep her
up most of the night which gave us 5knots of boat speed with a gentle 8knts of
breeze. Unfortunately the wind died a couple of times over night and up and down
she came. Most times we coincided this with watch changes, but Chris
impressively managed to bring her down on his own. As we are a competitive
bunch I am sure this will not be the first solo attempt! (Mum don't worry I am
not as heroic as the testosterone fuelled boys, so I will ask for help!)
This morning is looking ideal. We have a little more breeze from the south
east and are sailing a broad reach with the full spinnaker up, making 7.5kts,
with the sun shining. The shorts are on and we are finally feeling like we
are heading south. No sea sickness pills either at last!
The stressful efforts Pete and I put to
provisioning the boat are paying off, Melon and Parma ham with modified crepes
of ryvita, nutella and bananas for lunch and pasta carbonara in the evening with
kiwi and oranges to finish. We still have fresh pineapple and
mangoes to try! Not bad. All fruit was either wrapped in foil or packed in
vacuum boxes or hung in the food basket in the saloon. 40 oranges, 30
grapefruit, 30 kiwi, 3 pineapples, melons and 4 mangoes. One ripe bunch and one
very green bunch of bananas. We didn't bring that much fresh veg. 15 large
tomatoes, a few peppers ( they don't keep well), 5kg potatoes, cabbage and
herbs. The peppers, tomatoes and herbs are vacuum box packed and all but the
peppers are doing well. All boats were getting deliveries from
supermarkets and markets, in huge quantities so the pontoons were crowded with
crews preparing their provisions. All the fruit and veg needed cleaning in
'miltons' and drying, and all cardboard packaging removed to prevent boat
infestation by cockroaches! Their eggs are often found in any cardboard
packaging so not allowed on the boat at all. We brought a few loaves
of fresh bread, but the plan is soon to move on to part baked bread and then I
may even try baking. Most boats seem to be doing it so I thought it had to be
tried! I hardly ever baked bread on land in a decent oven, let alone at sea in a
small gas oven, when gas is a premium. I will keep you updated! I may even
make pancakes one day as we have 70 eggs, stored in the dark, in plastic and
turned daily.....
Having had the 'heads' pump and seal needing
repairing on the first day, I nearly became very unpopular. In the dark,
watch change, clothes put on in the dark, couldn't find hair 'scrunchy'. It had
been in my hair, but had obviously got lost in my clothes as I got dressed. Went
to the loo and guess what tuned up in the pan. If I hadn't looked before
pumping, I think the 'heads' would never have worked again!!!
The Ipod is working brilliantly and dancing in the
cockpit to our 80's mix this morning was entertaining, even if it did show our
age, 'tainted love', 'sweet dreams'.... We also have started watching '24'
again, which we plan to have as a regular slot every evening before starting
watches. Sitting in the dark in the cockpit huddled around the
laptop......
At 12 00 GMT we were 2,501 miles as the crow flies
from St Lucia and have done 350miles so far. Still heading South to avoid a
developing tropical storm, along way west of us, but all should be fine. We get
daily weather info ourselves and are emailed info from the 'ARC' team, so we are
fully informed :-)
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