1ST day at sea.
NORDLYS
David and Annette Ridout
Tue 5 May 2009 17:10
One day done many to
go.
34:23N 62:27W
1200hrs Tuesday 5th May
2009
Yesterday just before midday we upped anchor and
went through the final storage bit while circling the water off St
Georges. After our last experiences we had decided to undo the chain from
the anchor and to drop it down the hawse pipe on a rope. This rope was
then circled by an oil soaked rag and the whole lot was pulled into the hawse
pipe. Then two rubble bags were put over the windlass, one over the other,
then tied tight. Finally the windlass cover was put over the whole
lot. Surely we will not have a repeat of the last water ingress.
Having done that I lashed the RIB, with its tubes deflated, upside down over the
foredeck. Thus it was half an hour before we set sail out of the cut
to find a lovely SSE breeze of ten knots. Engine stopped and off we
went.
A friend has a program in his computer that when
the performance of your boat and the forecast winds are inserted into it comes
up with a suggested track. Actually these systems are becoming common but
I have never really needed one until now. For this reason we set off
steering 065M rather than the great circle track to Flores of 082M. The
idea is that we are going to get north up to 38 or 40 degrees fairly quickly to
enjoy, hopefully, some fine sailing before SW winds. The forecast was for
us to experience light ESE winds for two days before these SW winds kick
in. So far this has happened. All went well until the early hours of
the morning when the wind was down to 6/7 knots but with this on the beam we
kept sailing along. Now to our delight and unforecast the wind is up to a
good fifteen knots and the old lady is going well. In an attempt to move
with the light airs of earlier we set the reacher, ours is a code zero for the
technical sailors. This had been repaired in the Caribbean after its
'accident' on the passage from Ascension island. Alas it was a typical
West Indian repair and tore again while underway with
less than fifteen knots across it. We now have no light weather
sail.
Our first day at sea was full of interest and just
before our happy hour at 1800hrs we were surrounded by a large pod of
dolphins. These lovely creatures played all around us and occasionally
leapt clear of the water for twenty minutes or so before disappearing off on
their travels. Somehow they always lift the morale.
So to sum up: all is well on the good ship Nordlys
apart from a torn unrepairable, at least by us, reacher. Just over fifteen
hundred miles to go to Flores in the Azores. Weather looking reasonable
for the next few days. Watch this space!
David and Annette