Monday 4th - after a bad night
Moonshine
Mon 4 Dec 2006 18:13
said it that it was a bit premature.
At 10 p.m.last night, with the wind gusting between 20 and 30 knots in a
squall, and in the dark, the twistle rig rendered itself back into it's
component parts. There is no possibility of repair this time. The outermost
pieces, razor sharp where the carbon fibre had broken,were flailing around
still attached to the twin headsails. The inner ends were still attached to
the boat. There was a lot of activity on deck whilst we secured the
situation, and stopped the bits from shredding the sails, and then as it was
dark, we resorted to starting the engine, rolling the sails away and
considering the best way forward.
There was a big sea running, and it was not a comfortable night. The boat
was rolling to decks under, both sides. not nice!
About 7.30 this morning we rigged a different way. We still have twin
headsails, but now have the windward sail on the spinnaker pole and the
leeward sail sheeted in. It is working well.
We lost maybe 15 - 20 miles throughout this, and will lose more as a penalty
for running the engine. Anyway, once again we are barrelling downwind toward
St Lucia.It is possible that we are still 5th in class as 6th was some way
behind us.
We had a flying fish in the cockpit last night. It flew straight over the
top and into the sprayhood. It seemed to be undamaged, so Dave threw it back
in. We were quite disappointed when it didn't fly away, just landing in the
water like any other fish. We had evidence of others on deck , where they leave little
scaley marks before flipping back over the side.
It's not surprising that we get them on deck. Sometimes we pass through
clouds of them darting in all directions as they try to escape from us. the
sea must be teeming with them - probably every other fish's staple diet.
We think we must have some sort of record for the smallest fish caught.
It was a flying fish measuring just 32mm. Thats just over one inch long.
I caught it in a bucket whilst collecting water for washing. We have the
photos!
Last night was a cloudy squally night, and today is no different, although
there was promise of sunshine coming up from behind, it only happened briefly,
We have been in grey, cloudy, blustery, and sometimes rainy conditions for
the day, and it looks like the coming night too. The seas are about 10-15 ft.
The gourmet meals have taken a short break due to these seas. It's more a case
of getting a whole meal for three into one saucepan quickly.Chilli pasta is a
favourite at present, good last night, and to be repeated tonight.
-- And anyway, we ran out of fish!
The forecast is still for good sailing conditions all the way to St Lucia, and even
with the breakages we are still looking to trim time off our arrival estimate.
Oh the tonic!
Suddenly last night, before the rig broke, Alun realised that we still had a bottle
of gin, but no mixers. Immediately, delivery invoices and memories were
checked. This established that there was a strong likelihood that 12 bottles
of tonic were on the boat somewhere.
This was very important to Alun.
Muttering incoherently, and shaking a little, he proceeded to unpack the entire
boat. It was done at speed. A little later all 12 were found in the locker beside
his bed - a locker reserved for his use. mmm.
Once again, thanks for your interest.
Rod, Dave,and Alun
SY Moonshine
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