Abandoned yacht and Thanksgiving!
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25/11/10 19 10N 21 04W Thursday
Day 5, Thanksgiving! We may not
understand what it is in England but it was an excuse to celebrate aboard Nakesa
and a big dinner was planned and announced on the notice board in the morning. I
awoke to a cloudy sky, no coffee and stepped out of my bunk and into solving a
log that wasn’t working (easy, blocked impeller although had to fight through a
metre of crisps to find it in the bilge) and a non running generator. This meant
that before sipping coffee and surveying the horizon I was gulping mouthfuls of
diesel priming fuel pumps and filters to solve an air lock. Just after mid day
we had it fixed and Ashley valiantly tidied connections and hoses whilst
preparing roast dinner. WE have four yachts in sight, Fred
our neighbour in Las Palmas, Shania a Jeanneau 49 and two others
which are un-identified but we suspect one to be Playjam. My turn to do lunch, tuna
steaks of course, we also caught a Mahi Mahi in the night which by morning Jody
had cleaned and put in the freezer, fishing was suspended today as we have too
much! The afternoon brought an eerie sighting, an abandoned yacht. We were concerned that it may be a pirate trap of some sort or escapees from Mauritania and so we approached Shania who shadowed us as we approached the boat. Sadly it turned out to be an abandoned (we hope yacht, a Wharram catamaran called Knott, in very good condition yet dismasted. It had new equipment and good electronics and so hadn’t been discovered by fisherman yet, a dinghy etc and was partially sunk. It cannot have been like this long and we speculated on its history. We were concerned that there may be injured or exhausted crew inside but decided against boarding, reporting its position and description to MRCC, Search and Rescue in Falmouth and to the ARC organisers to warn other boats in case of collision. It left us all wondering on the crews fate for trhe rest of the day, I hope we will discover with time. Spoke with the dutch crew of Fred on the VHF, they too had opted for making south and were concerned about avoiding an intense low just to the NW of us and headed for the Canary Islands. We believe that the boats that headed west have already become entangled with it but with ‘storm’ force winds forecast within it, I, and they were very keen to get to the south of the whole system. The thinking is right as we remain with fair winds and great sailing although a little light at times, however we shall see if our overall position is effected as a result. What price comfort? Cocktails and dinner...what a meal, roast chicken, potatoes and gravy once again produced seemingly effortlessly by Ashley and apple crumble desert by Atlanta...we will be putting on weight! Fantastic evening. My ear still no better, some medical advice received through Jennifer, Ashley’s lovely wife, but still very painful and totally deaf to starboard; at least I only hear half of the insults about the skipper and I could have saved on two of the stereo speakers I fitted in Las Palmas though. Ah well, through the night, Cape Verde islands here we come!!
167 miles run today. |
