The first ten days were relatively easy sailing
with light winds and calm sea's. Its going to be like this all the way you get
lulled into thinking sub conciously - not so !! the last three days we've taken
a good old fashioned battering ! winds gusting to forty knots and never less
than twenty five to thirty, with a weather warning from the ARC office of fifty
knot plus clustered thunderstorms one hundred miles in front of us - glad we're
not a faster boat !!! Best boat speed so far is 12.4 knots surfing
down the front of a huge atlantic roller - waves hitting us one minute from the
stern the next from the side, the boat slamming violently through ninety
degree's and rollin half way to the horizon. Everything on board sliding and
crashing in lockers or if not secured then flying through the air. Lets have a
nice cup of coffee you think to yourself at five am in the dark hours - forget
it - you prop the empty mug in the sink with cloths around it to support it
upright, reach for the coffee which means letting go with one hand therefore
having to make a wild grab for the jar as you lurch with the boat - now the
tricky bit - a jar in one hand and a spoon in the other - look folks no hands -
ouch ! if I head butt that hand rail one more time I'm gonna scream !! Ok, dip
into the jar, measure the spoonfull, time it just right - slam - the well aimed
spoonfull goes everywhere but in the cup - second attempt success. The kettles
boiling - got to be careful now, this is dangerous ! I trace an arc of
boiling water swinging from one side of the sink to the other - if lucky my cup
will be half full by the time the kettles empty !. So far so good. Time
for the milk - the same again - a swinging arc of milk across the sink,
always too much milk - never just how you like it - hold on whats that - white
lumps..... Damn the broken fridge, the milks off again. I tip the cup over in
disgust and think about that nice bottle of water with my name written on the
side in the cockpit. Anyway, the forecast says the bad
weathger should have passed through by this afternoon - its already calmed down
considerably from last night - did I mention that one huge wave that hit us ? no
- ok, the three of us sitting in the cockpit, 30 seconds earlier just finished a
fine meal of our first line caught fish - a big eight poundish at a guess wahoo,
or maybe dorado ? wasn't red enough meat for a yellow fin tuna ( see the photo
in yesterdays blog ) anyway, all of a sudden, crash ! a huge wave
smashed into the side of the cockpit - came right over the top and drenched all
three of us to the skin and filled the cockpit with blue water halfway to the
seats !! We just sat there open mouthed, looking at each other and dripping,
almost funny really, almost but not quite !! But hey, the bad weathers behind us
now and the boats built to handle big sea's and strong winds - she looks after
us well - no need to worry folks.
Well look - thanks for being a very generous
audience but this is all about us - what about you ? Lets see now, 240 boats
each with between two and six crew - maybe an average of four, thats nearly a
thousand people at sea. I'd guess there's maybe ten or twelve of my friends and
family following our blog so that means there could be ten thousand of you out
there all logging on at different times to see if our updates been posted yet.
Wow, thats an awfull lot of people, some maybe anxious and a bit worried, some
who know more about sailing realising that we're on a good boat and have a lot
of experience between us, maybe a few people just reading the blog cos they
found it in an ARC blog internet search while bored at work with a bit
of time to spare - my point is that whoever you are its great to know you're
reading this now - it makes it worth the effort - thanks very much !!
Adios Amigos.
We are now moving west and the clocks are
starting to go backwards from UTC, so our blogs will be updated in the evenings
from now on.
