Lilli Mae, On the way home - Leg 4 - The Big One - Update 4th December 19
Lilli Mae
Linton
Tue 3 Dec 2019 23:01
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Hi Everyone, We are hoping you are seeing the position
on our tracker. At this moment we are doing 8.4 knots with wind gusting 28 knots
(force 7). We are downwind and at this speed and wind angle we are quite
comfortable. Let's hope it stays that way! Actually after all this downwind
sailing I don't think I ever want to sail upwind again!
Anyway, we are continuing to head west. Winds are now
very strong and the sea is a lot "bigger" than it has been in the first week.
The trade winds have been a little disrupted by other weather systems (so
our weather router advises) but they are apparently settling down now. The swell
is probably about 2 - 3 metres high and sometimes it feels as though the sea is
going to fall in on you from behind or Lilli Mae is on the top of a hill sliding
down into a big ditch. We have over 1200 miles under our belt and our
instruments tell us we have another 1600 to go.
We had a tough couple of hours last night; we were all
up trying to get the boat managed as the wind really picked up.
We were all up trying to fix issues at 0100 this morning so we were
all a little tired today. So we have been lazing around a bit. It has been a
lovely sunny day today. Even when the wind is strong the air is warm. The
challenge last night was bad enough in these temperatures. I would have been a
nightmare in UK cold and wet conditions.
We crossed the 30 DEG longitude mark today so our "boat
clock" went back by 1 hour. This meant instead of the normal 4 hour watch mine
(Howard) was 5 hours. It does sometimes get complicated (for me anyway!); we
have to manage the "boat time" and GMT for navigation. I will say the 4 hour
watch pattern has so far worked well. Mike and Peter are OK with it and we have
now got into the routine which means lunch and dinner have to be a certain times
to ensure everyone is rested for their watch. Having said that I think I
got had the luck with my shift.
Food and meals are going well. We had bacon
sandwiches for lunch today and we are having stir fry for dinner tonight. Both
are favourites with crew members.
Today and for tonight we are planning on staying on the
same heading and sail plan. Tomorrow evening we will probably gybe and try
to head a bit more south toward St Lucia. Hopefully you will be able to see when
we do this on the tracker.
We now have a ritual that occurs at noon GMT and just
before dinner. The daily position results for the rally are received at
noon and the daily weather update comes in sometime in the PM. Despite the fact
that we are not racing the motivational power of a list with your name on it is
huge. Combine this with our weather router information that comes in the PM, the
team tactics discussion before dinner would put Sir Ben Ainslie on the back
foot
 . After today's conference we had dinner and a
celebratory gin and tonic. Not sure what we were celebrating but a couple of
days ago we celebrated with port and a few days before that with honey rum we
discovered in the Las Palmas. I was sorting out the sails for this evening and
got struck on the arm by a flying fish. Today we saw loads of them flying
all over the place. This morning there must have been 3 on the deck of the boat.
Despite these fish literally jumping into our lap we still have not caught
one!
Anyway hope all is good with everyone where ever you
are. Will keep you updated on our adventure.
Crew on Lilli
Mae |