Little Pea's Arc Blogeramma 14 -
Littlepea
Tue 11 Dec 2012 21:01
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15:15.9N 057:20.9W
As I type we have "Reach" by S Club 7 blasting out
the cockpit speakers. The level of Dad dancing by Minkey and Jags is very
worrying...
As is becoming a regular occurrence, yesterday was
very hot forcing us to seek shelter under the bimini and suspend all maintenance
tasks until the temperature had dropped. The day before we discovered that the
furler (a drum at the front of the yacht used to roll Debs away) had lost a few
bolts. In order to fix it we had to remove the pole, drop Debs to the deck make
a quick repair and rehoist. We waited until early evening and performed the
whole manouvre in less than 40mins and the relaunch was so slick we could have
been fully crewed on a Solent round the cans race boat!
Fresh rations are now sparse on board but this
still doesn't stop the culinary genius who is Ben from creating a taste
sensation. Tonight he made a spinach and chorizo curry (don't knock it 'till
you've tried it). It tasted stunning and we're still trying to get the recipe
out of him. All we know is that he used a rusty hammer and a sauce pan
instead of a pestle and mortar.
We knew from our daily weather forecast that we
were in for yet another night of relentless squalls and pin accurate helming.
Mike gave each crew member a little coaching on how to deal with the conditions
(a book on downwind helming and accompanying DVD will be released for Christmas,
a bargain at only 25quid) and we broke into our 'storm watch' system. Well the
forecast did not disappoint. As the first night time squalls hit, propelling
Little Pea into double figures, a small pod of dolphins played with our bow
wave. Each subsequent squall that came seemed to hit with more force and colder
rain than the previous. This process continued throughout the night. On his
final nightwatch before sunrise Mike, having just been hit by his largest squall
yet, caught a wave and started to surf at great speed when suddenly the wheel
became unresponsive. He'd done it again, broken more kit in the dark on his
watch! Luckily Pea has two wheels, so Mike jumped over the port side wheel
regaining control narrowly avoiding sending the boat into a spin. Jags sprung
into action fitting the emergency tiller (should we have full steering failure)
and assessed the damage (as well as the repair cost which did nothing to improve
his mood that night). The one problem with this sort of failure is that it's
nearly impossible to fix whilst the boat is moving, therefore to save loosing
yet more costly time to repairs we continue with just one wheel and the
emergency tiller ready to be used in anger!
By the morning the crew were exhausted, hands
chapped and blistered from helming, and hoped that dawn would bring a more
relaxing sail as we get very close to the finishing line.
We finish with a short extract from Mike's new book
on downwind helming:
Chapter 17 - Recovering from a total
cock up
Should your newly acquired downwind helming
skills that you have learnt in this book fail you and you're sent into a violent
broach follow these easy steps to regain control:
1. As the yacht starts to round up, start using
short sharp expletives to forewarn your crew of their impending
doom.
2. Once broached, heavily curse the wind, tide,
sails,nearby vessels and local marine life. Make sure you don't curse the boat
or Neptune - they do not like that and will make you suffer more before helping
you regain control.
3. Ask a fellow crew member to 'dump the main
and vang/kicker
4. Jolt the wheel from hard lock to half turn
and back to hard lock to force water to flow over the rudder.
5. As control starts to return make sure the
main brought back in and preventer tightened and straighten up onto your
intended course.
6. Blame everything (gust, rouge waves, that
dodgy repair, local marine wildlife) except yourself
7. Apologise to the yacht and avoid any eye
contact with the owner for a couple of hours.
8. Repeat.
Jags, Mike, Minkey
and Ben
Picture in advent calendar = Not sure, it's
still a melted chocolaty trodden on mess
Max Boat speed = 14.8 kts
Number of Reefs = Nil.
Maximum Gust = 36 kts
Number of flying fish = 1, which hit Jags in the
shoulder
Number of dolphins = 8
Number of Whales = 0 (Brian has disowned
us)
Amount of Rain = Lots, on the hour, every
hour. |