Shake , rattle & roll
Neroli
Charles Tongue
Wed 10 Dec 2008 17:29
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15:15.17N
51:02.00W
Shake, rattle
& roll............
Another record
noon day run today - 164 miles - but it has not been the most comfortable 24
hours with the wind dead astern and Neroli's mast rolling through 100 degrees.
The wind has been blowing fairly consistently from between ESE and ENE for three
days and blowing F5. Fast sailing in the right direction but quite wearing on
the crew. Everything on the boat that is not fastened down shakes and rattles
and it is impossible to sleep for any length of time. Even with lee cloths in
place and wedged with cushions etc one is thrown from side to side and one
minute is weightless and the next pressed into the bunk
cushions.
 The skipper
taking noon sun sights.
It seems that
some who have been following Neroli's progress think that we might have
progressed across the Atlantic somewhat quicker if we had spent less time
planning, preparing and eating our meals! Certainly the food has been a
highlight and a huge amount of credit must be given to Henry who did much of the
planning, ordering, stowing and, along with Lou, much of the cooking. 17 days
out from Las Palmas we are still eating fresh fruit - in particular delicious
apples, oranges and limes. Our fresh vegetable stocks are now running a little
low but we still have cabbage, onions, potatoes, courgettes and a couple of
large butternut squash. Henry caught a magnificent Tuna yesterday on a different
lure as our best one was taken by a massive (unseen!) fish that ran our line
away. Fresh Tuna
steaks
tonight.
We still find
time for other activities and here is the skipper taking noon sun sights on the
sextant. The wildlife is still disappointing although we saw our first
Tropicbird yesterday. There are plenty of flying fish, a few Petrels but little
else. Night sailing at the moment is enhanced by the moon which is almost full
and getting better daily. As this is posted we have 576 miles to St Lucia
which is exciting. By mid-day today 21 yachts had reached St Lucia, lead by the
Swan 82 'Dream Catcher'. It would seem that 81 yachts have further to travel to
St Lucia than Neroli and our handicap suggests that only 24 should be behind us
so we can't be doing too badly.
The WAGs
together with their manager and mascot fly out to St Lucia tomorrow so we had
better get a move on and get there ; not to mention cleaning and tidying
Neroli!
Wednesday
10.12.08 17.30 GMT
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