11 December- The night of a thousand squalls..........
Moulin Rouge
Philip Barltrop
Sat 11 Dec 2010 20:44
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14:13.022N 52:57.726W
Following the commands of more canvass yesterday,
speeds crept up as the day went on. The sail plan consisting of a reefed
headsail and full main set up in a wing and wing configuration performed well
and was surprisingly stable. Moulin Rouge may not be a boat for going up
hills, but she certainly likes to go down hill!!
A meal, again prepared by Ben, was well received by
a full compliment of crew on deck and thoughts of completion of this Oceanic
task held spirits high. Discussion then turned towards how good the
quality of sleep will be that night with the stable nature of the boat and
relatively calmed seas - All looked good for the night ahead......
Following dinner, the crew separated to perform
duties, some cleaning up after dinner, others headed to their bunks to try and
grab a few extra minutes of sleep before the impending morning watches.
Chris returned up to the deck after completing duties to Sit with Mark, who
pointed out the top boat speed that had been reached whilst people were down
below - Moulin Rouge was going for it and had reached 11.5 knots under white
sails!! and one of those sails was reefed!!
The crew settled down for the night, Chris kept
Mark company on his watch, then Mark reciprocated, it was at about 10pm when the
sun had just about set when Chris was trying to encourage Mark to reef the main
for the night - Mark took some convincing as the quicker we go, the sooner we
get to St Lucia! Mark was eventually convinced and the main sail was
reefed to the first reef, when all was set, Chris noticed the boat speed was
still 10.2 knots and that it would be necessary to put in the second reef to
slow the boat down for the planned quiet night of rest. The second reef went in
and the speed reduced to a steady 7.2 knots accelerating a further 1.5knots each
time Moulin surfed a wave!! This was going to be a good mileage
night!
At 11pm, Chris handed over the watch to Colin
saying that the second reef was in, the boat was stable and a fair turn of speed
was being achieved, Chris then settled down into his bunk to rest although he
was still 'on call' until 1am. Colin came down to check the radar and
Chris commented that he would keep an ear and eye open in case any assistance
was needed.......
Twenty minutes later Andy mutters that it is
starting to rain as he closed the aft cabin window, Chris then got up and donned
his lifejacket to check the status. Once on deck, Chris finds Colin who
points out a very dark cloud on the horizon and tracking in our direction, this
did not look good, the Radar showed a picture of a bright pink blob that was
growing and heading our way. After some further monitoring that first
squall did move away from us, and we were relieved, but somewhat confused
about it northwards movement as this was contrary to what we had been
told.
This was the first of the squalls of the night and
there were to be more. Chris re-settled down in his bunk and then it was
obvious from the sound of the water outside the boat that things were picking up
again, Chris donned his lifejacket again and headed to the deck, by this point,
Philip was already awake and monitoring the radar for further squalls.
Another was here and had about 28 knots of wind across the deck and a resultant
boat speed of 13knots - smashing Mark's earlier record of 11.5 knots. The
stable sail setting had to be disturbed and the main sail had to come
down. After quite a fight, the sail did eventually come down, as did
the speed, now stabilised at about 7 knots with no main and a further reefed
head sail - all that could be seen to the horizon were
further dark patches and potential squalls - we knew this was going to be a
wet night for all watches....
Not a single watch got away without being hit by a
squall this night, but all that we had to do was ride out the mini storms.
The sail plan was solid and responding well and not overpowered for the strong
gusts, but Chris was very happy to see the sunlight as the sun started to rise
at 9am this morning - things always seem better in the light of
day.....
Ben managed to sleep through all of the high winds
and sail changing earlier on in the night, but he did get a good soaking
whilst on watch in the morning, so he can be
forgiven......
The theme for the morning was consistent with watch
keepers trying to hide as far under the spray hood as possible to get out of the
worst of the rain whilst looking out through the plastic windows - we are
looking forward to a drier period without showers, but we do expect more
precipitation over the next couple of days.
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