Stowaway story
Miss Molly 4
Bob & Peggy Wilkerson/Geoff & Merel Pettifer
Fri 21 May 2010 14:07
169:29.71 E
Hello All!
Time for a longer entry which means the weather is improving. It's been
messy lately. Rain, wind on the nose, confused seas and Merel's all time
favourite: lightning. Luckily too far off to get upset from. Yesterday
(Wednesday)afternoon we were having a wonderful sail, not quite believing
the forecast that said the headwinds were on our path. James spotted a
pretty little finch dozing on the dinghy, Definitely not a sea bird. He flew
around in the cockpit and as birds lost at sea do entertained us while he
sat here and there, slept here and there and of course left us little
presents. When his
spirits had lifted he took off again. Hope he found another boat, since we
were more than 200 miles offshore by then!
But then after dark the weather changed and we had, let's face it, a shitty
night. Rolly, slow progress and damp. Buckets and buckets of sea water
landed in the cockpit. Sea legs seemed to disappear again, Merel can't
remember the last time she was that green. We had hoped that things would
certainly easy off by lunch, but no such luck. OK the wind backed a bit so
that we (well Geoff of course - without getting too wet) could deploy the
staysail, but still heavy seas. We had to wait till dinner time until the
seas smoothened out a bit. The winds have eased a bit too. And 2 positive
signs that were not there last night: a rising barometer and a bit of red in
the sky.
We are doing 9 kts so we are trying to make up for the loss of progress
today, as there are
still weather systems ahead we would like to beat. 360 Nm to go - over half way.
O and the moon is not waning, but growing so more light at night.
Cheers from
Geoff, Merel & James