Little Pea's ARC 14 Blogoramma - Steady going now
Littlepea
Mon 1 Dec 2014 15:54
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Tune of the day: "Driftwood" - Travis
Day 7. Now we are into trade wind
sailing. The wind has swung around to the NE and dropped off. Our
pole is out and we are currently running dead down wind with the gentle pitch
and roll that is worlds apart from Life at 45 degrees. Order has been
restored down below, we enjoyed the sunrise this morning rather than look at it
with a sense of relief. Underwear has been changed and we've fixed the
things that were broken. We finally got the diesel out of our bilges
and repaired the rubbish bin after Ben fell on it. We even
washed some clothes.
We had our first sighting of real sealife last
night when a small pod of "something big with dorsal fins" briefly followed in
our wake in the small hours before disappearing out of sight into the water
abyss. Jags was convinced they were a pod of Orcas that might have thought
we were a whale and started to stalk us. He was however, reassured
that his choice of black antifoul, rather than grey, for this season
was the deterrent. The rest of us just made the point that Orca's
don't eat fibre glass.
On other news, Minkey has completed an audit
of our provisions and has, so far, not raised any significant objections to the
fact that we've discovered the stash of sweeties, breaking rationing
rules. Ben fixed the wind generator using the "turning it off, wait for 30
seconds and turn it on again" method, which showed true brilliance.
We had our first rain squall shower. A big
string of dark clouds came through and brought enough rain for a quick shower on
deck. clothes were ripped off, shower gel applied and we had our first
wash for a week. Lovely. Mike got his timing wrong and managed to
apply the shower gel just before the rain stopped. We almost fell
overboard laughing. He is nicely scented now though...
Unfortunately we have some very sad news to share.
This morning, on his maiden flight at sea, Dave the Drone lost signal and flew
into the abyss. He was sent up into the sky to take pictures of Little Pea
sailing fully canvassed. However, early into the flight signal with Dave was
lost and he quickly vanished out of sight. His battery only lasts 6 mins, so
although we didn't see him ditch, we're pretty sure his demise was brief
and painless. Mike, who was controlling Dave with the remote at the
time, was briefly overcome with grief feeling that operator error may have been
a contributory factor. However, poetic tributes to Dave will be most
welcome and reassuring to Mike. Please send them in and we'll share the
best. Finally, your blog questions & comments
answered:
1. What is a beam reach? This is when the wind
is at right angles to the boat, and is a fast but sometimes furious point of
sailing.
2. Breaking the shackle holding the headsail; can
that be repaired? Yes, all done and dusted. We carry many spares on
board, including a lot of shackles, rope, WD40 and Duct Tape.
3. If it is gusty, why aren't you reefed? The
daily stats for reefs are taken at the time of writing. We have put it and
shaken out many reefs, but the majority of the time we've been full main
sail.
4. Where can I see what the weather is like in the
Atlantic? www.passageweather.com
provides a pretty good pictorial of the current weather conditions and mid-range
forecasts out here.
5. We hope Little Pea is going to receive the full
gold standard valet before the Jagger ladies arrive. We have already
been in touch with St. Lucia's finest boat cleaning team (aka
"Pappa and Son") who will go to work upon our arrival.
Please keep sending you questions, inspiring words
and ode's to Dave the Drone to littlepeasailing {CHANGE TO AT} gmail {DOT} com
Daily stats for today:
Max
Boat speed = Nothing to write home about.
Number of Reefs = Nil
Maximum Gust = 28kts
Number of Flying Fish = numerous (none in
the boat yet)
Number of Orca's = 4
Amount of Rain = Plenty to wash everyone
except Mike Jags, Minkey, Ben and
Mike
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