Little Pea's ARC 14 Blogoramma - Babs is back...
Littlepea
Thu 4 Dec 2014 15:55
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17:47.8N 040:31.7W
Tune of the Day - "Can't Take my Eyes off You",
Frankie Vallie & the Four Seasons
Day 11. Today is a day of true Trade-Wind
sailing. The breeze has gone very light, the sea state has become one
of gentle rolling waves. The sun is getting hotter and hotter and
we've fallen into a steady rhythm of boat routine. We talk
about food a lot, we then spend a lot of time preparing and then eating, after
which we talk about what we've eaten and start planning the next meal.
Minkey did a full audit of our provisions today and we are still
sufficiently well stocked for what is looking increasingly like at least another
week at sea.
After a splendid performance last night, we have
given Daisy a rest and, in the face of continuing lighter winds we have
brought Big Babs our of her sail bag. Babs is our largest spinnaker
sail. She is by far our most powerful sail and has the ability to keep us
moving at a reasonable pace. We love to see Babs in action. However,
she is also demanding, cannot be taken for granted and, if
you turn your back on her for just the briefest of time, will distribute
punishment in the form of violent acts of mischief, most notably the
infamous "broach" (which happens to be one of her specialities - she added two
particularly savage ones to her track record with us in 2012). She
also doesn't like other sails very much and has, in the past been known to
attack the Duchess (the boat's Mainsail) by pinging off her sheets in the
direction of the Main and shredding holes in her in the process. We hope her
tantrum of 2012 doesn't come back to haunt us this year!
She's been up all morning and so far so good.
We are however, nervous wrecks and are probably going to have to put Daisy back
up tonight and none of us want to deal with a Bab's tantrum in the middle of the
night.
Ben washed his pants today and has hung them up to
dry. Interestingly, this appears to have given us additional boat
speed, as his pants are just slightly smaller than the mainsail.
Minkey is complaining about having to sit in the shade when he is working on his
tan. Talking of tans, ours are coming on quite well. Ben has gone
through stage one of turning pink, and now rather resembles a nougat bar (pink on one side and white on the
other). Jags shaved off his beard today and
now looks a bit like Ling Ling the Panda. Minkey has bronzing
nicely in his usual relaxed position in the cockpit. Mike is quite brown,
although we are not entirely convinced it's suntan...
We have a couple of Q & A's for the Little Pea
Agony Aunt section today:
Q: How are you doing compared to your last crossing
in 2012? Mr R. Minkley, Kingston-Upon-Thames
A: We were 15 minutes faster than last time at the
halfway point, but we think the second half will be much slower. 15.5
days seems a bit ambitious this time which is most concerning because it
means prolonged exposure to Jags' Radio 2 playlist and Mike's
festive choral music.
Q. For many years I have encouraged my son (Swee'Pea) to run away to sea
but, to the relief of his mother (Olive Oyl), he keeps coming back! What
can I do to keep him at sea? Popeye, Liverpool
A: Sell the house, buy a yacht and become liveaboards.
Daily stats for today:
Max
Boat speed = 9 kts
Number of spinnakers used = 2 (Daisy & Babs)
Maximum Gust = 20kts
Number of Flying Fish = one major
sighting which flew into Bab's, creating blind panic on board that there she may
seek retribution
Number of Whales = 0. Brian probably got bored
Amount of Rain = nil
Advent calendar highlight = All starting to
melt. Still no sign of Wally's socks, unless they're disguised as a
chocolate dog poo
Jags, Minkey, Ben and
Mike |