25:17N 20:11W at 05.45 UTC 24th May
Trundling southwestish at 7-9 knots on Monday, nice day, all a bit tired
after the excitment of the first day but recovering and getting into the
routine.
I handsteered for six hours or so in the morning, then had the brilliant
idea of recalibrating the autopilot so it knew which way was forwards. So
Bryan took over for a much easier watch and i'd wasted my time not fixing it
earlier.
My turn to cook but since I was steering and knackered, Rob made the bread
which worked brilliantly (ie completely bread-like and edible) - at his
first attempt. But I did get sleep I the afternoon and then made dinner. It's
important to use the fresh vegetables in these early days so I made spag
bol.
We hear bits of news, including pirate party pix on the website and That
Pirate Sail in the local Gran Canaria newspaper. Bryan thinks it'll be in
the yotmags, pah.
Tuesday morning now, the wind has dropped, writing this whilst hunting for
forecasts and wind somewhere.
BxWx suspects I might be covertly using the engine. Dearie me, no chance.
We're all very proper on this boat. Everyone clips on and wears
lifejackets, and none of stingo's foredeck dancing. Bryan started off not
drinking any wine, but we're wearing away at him and he had a teensy bit of
wine today. Obviously, alcohol impairs your judgement, but what if your
normal judgement is a bit rubbish?
The sheets (or are they guys?) holding down the parasail sometimes get
wrapped around the foredeck nav lights if the sail goes loose. I think most
of the damage to the sheets (and the breakage out of gibraltar) was due to
the massive chafe that came from this. My first idea was to get out the
hacksaw off the navlights and their mounting plate, but my second less
extreme idea was to wrap lots of rope around the area to force a stray sheet
to slip off if it came near. Excellent bit of weaving from Peter and Bryan
sorted this.
I think I've discovered how to look good in the wcc/ARC progress table. You
send a position more often. So, everyone sends a position at 1200, but if
we also send another position at 1800 too, and then it updates automatically
as far as I know, and we'll be leading, hah.
More later
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