No wind, Harold, and 'The Atlantic Beard'
Lowena
Michael & Amanda Dyer
Sun 9 Dec 2007 21:16
Three hundred and sixty-seven miles to go. Seemingly no distance at all, but the last couple of days have seen us once again in very little wind. Another mishap occurred with the extra genoa two nights ago. The sheet chafed right through against the pole, so at 2 am we had to try and get it down. It didn't have a second sheet attached so the best we could do was roll it in most of the way, then try and tie it up by wrapping the spinnaker halyard around it. We left it overnight, until the flogging alerted us that it had managed to undo itself. As soon as it got light we untangled the mess and dropped it onto the deck. Today was the turn of the regular genoa. Fortunately it had a lazy sheet, so we could wind it up on the furler, and the total lack of wind allowed us to cut and retie the sheet at the clew without dropping the sail.
After a couple of nights aboard ship, Harold decided it was time to go. We woke up this morning to find no trace of him except a few streaks of dried guano along the decks. I don't think he had any energy to fly on, so I imagine it was his last act as an egret to dive over the side of the boat in search of that final elusive fish. May he rest in peace.
Since leaving harbour, I haven't shaved at all. After a week of so I went through the intense, itching period, which I think is caused because the curvature of the hairs sends them straight back into the skin. *WARNING* MATHEMATICAL IDEAS FOLLOW (skip if preferred)
Assuming they adopt a direction consisting of a vector outwards combined with an essentially random path, they travel on average, the square root of their length + a fixed velocity vector outwards. Eventually, this fixed velocity vector overcomes the 'random walk' path, resulting in itch free skin. *END*
Apparently, customs and immigration officers like their clients to look sleek and clean-shaven, so I may have to tame the wild beard. Worry not, for I shall photographically record it upon arrival.
STOP PRESS Apparently Mother Dearest wrote a blog yesterday. WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE!! So some of the information here may have appeared beforehand. For this, dear reader, I apologise.