Its a big pond!
LIBERTAD
Paul Huntley
Wed 27 May 2009 13:19
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36:45N 53:46W
Wednesday 27th May 2009
Good morning to all of you. I havn't been able to
send blogs recently due to the poor weather but today it has improved a little.
For the past two days it has been blowing up to 28knots with 3/4 mtr swells from
the north where there has been a large amount of activity with winds exceeding
45 knts. Today the swell has reduced overnight and the wind not more than 25
knts we have shaken out the overnight reefs in the mainsail and genoa. We have
at least been traveling in the right direction.We now have 846 nm under the keel
with 1200 to run to Horta possibly another ten days.
Life aboard Libertad has settled in to
a routine that blends one day in to the next, we have to check the watch
rota to establish the day or date. Since our last blog we have been visited by
Dolphin on two occasions, the come and play in the bow wave rolling on to their
backs in a submissive massarge of aireated water.the communication between them
is audible with high pitched sqweeks passing between them with only a human
interpretation possible.the lagest of the dolphins, let call him dad,kept up
barrage of sqweeks with the rest of his family warning perhaps of potential
dangers or maybe instucting the younger ones in the art of swimming accross the
bow wave as close as possible but not mistimming the run and hitting the boat.we
have been mesmerised by their actions with the crew on the foredeck
attempting that perfect photo.Each visit has been the highlight of the day
leaving us all with a feeling of wonder at the how at one with their environment
they are.
We have sighted one othe vesssel , a large
bulk carrier again heading east to to eastern seaboard of the
U.S guess.
We als had one othe special encounte with a very
large Pilot whale, this leviathen of the ocean cruised gently passed us in the
oposite direction about a quarter of a mile on our starboard side.
.Drew noticed him at first,he surfaced with a gentle arch of his back
a spout of water from his blow hole and a gentle dive into the deep. It
is dificult to judge but I would think he was more than sixty feet
long and must have weighed many tons.
The highlights of the day is diner .since my
last blog we have had for mains course pork ribs roasted with Hickory sauce and
fresh vegetables. The folling evening we enjoyed what Mordecai described as his
signiture dish of egg plant Carbonnara, it had a large obergine as the main
ingredient but hard as I tried the Carbonnara seemed to be missing. As a
vegetable stir fry what it was superb.
We are now left with few gormet choices
evideced last night with a Fray Bentos steak and Kidney pie and the last of the
fresh vegetables served up in the dog bowels as it wes so rough.Guy had the
dubios pleasure of preparing this delight ,Drew having lost the will to live
abdegated his watch responsibily offering instead to wash up
We are baking bread, two one pound loaves on a
daily basis ,Lucien is certainly the master baker but Drew made a valliant
effort and baked yesterdy we shall have to wait and see if they are up to the
high standard that Lucien has set.
As a crew we are all very tire finding it hard if
not impossible to sleep for more than a few minutes before beeing tossed out of
the bunk..Out progess on the large Atlantic chart seems painfully slow with our
position plotted each day being no more than half an inch from the
last.
Well I have a position report to make and a radio
schedule it meet at 13:00 utc so I will commit this episly to the technicologial
airwaves of Mt Iridium.
Best wishes to you all from the crew of Libertad
.Paula
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