Day 16 Week 2 over and now steadypProgress
Moondancer
Mon 8 Dec 2008 17:19
|
Yesterday saw the end of our second week at sea,
also 2000 miles travelled and less than 1000 to go, all very indicative of a
three week crossing but obviously the weather can change that in a hurry
either way.We are all still talking, and still a dry boat, and even now not yet
out of our fresh food. We are all beginning to look forward to our arrival date,
and are hoping it will be sometime next Sunday.
For the first time last night we managed to keep a
spinnaker up without needing to rouse all hands in the early ours to change
sail. A steady but lightish night allowed us to keep our big blue asymmetric up.
Around noon the wind picked up to 18 knots and we took it down to reach under
our main and genoa.
News then came through from Juju a couple of
hundred miles ahead of more strong winds and squalls expected from the south. At
this point our wind had dropped to about 12 knots and we had a chat to
review the situation. Stay under genoa in case of strong winds? well we decided
that Juju's forecast was too far away to be of any relevance to us, and anyway
forecasts have been almost useless so far. So back to the asymmetric, but just
to show we still have some tricks up our sleeve, we decided to use our white
flatter reaching asymmetric, rather than the fuller blue one. This is
distinguished by a paw print on the sail.
 This is now pushing us along really quickly, at
about 7.2 knots in 12 knots of true wind speed.
This sail is now called 'The Puma' and is dedicated
to our son Teddy, who is currently in Bolivia and was recently mauled by a puma
while working at an animal refuge.He was bitten and scratched but fortunately
both he and puma had previously been vaccinated against rabies, and he was given
serious antibiotics and stitched up by a drunk Australian vet. The worse
wounds were behind his knee which very painful but he seems to be
recovering. Doubtless we will get the fuller story when we see him in St Lucia.
At this rate it looks like he will be there two day before us!
Other news today of great importance to those on
board, but probably not elsewhere, is that the primordial swamp at the bottom of
the fridge has now been cleared out. Also no more fishing until we have eaten
the last of our fresh food.
Just seen a tanker on the horizon, the first boat
we have seen for five days !
|