Position: 15:00:90N 52:16:10W

Transat Day 19

The last 24hrs have been characterized by a succession of squalls, a very lumpy sea which has done its best to join us in the cockpit, and a number of boat sightings.

The squalls have given us no more than 35kts, so it’s been a case of shutting the hatches and zipping the cockpit cover on, dropping the mizzen (to help with steering) and furling the twin genoas down to a 2-reef equivalent.  We’ve left the full main up.  Then it’s just a case of steering down with the gusts.  The only tricky bits are the waves, which last night into early morning were around 3m and confused.  This meant that Nutmeg could suddenly be thrown bodily sideways by a wave and pushed 60 degrees off course, from which it is hard to recover.  Now and again a cheeky wave comes from out of nowhere and throws a big wet lump of water into the cockpit before rushing off.  Most uncivilized.

As I was steering at around 2100 last night, we were treated to a very rare sight – a night-time rainbow!  A squall had just passed through, and we had an almost full moon from behind.  There was the unmistakable bow, quite clearly visible for about twenty minutes, ahead of us.  Very strange sight.

We’ve spent a lot of the last 24hrs sailing in company with other boats.  First, we were sailing quite close to another yacht, although both of us were clearly too lazy to radio the other, but I suspect it was “Tatt av Vinden”, a Jeanneau 45 which was berthed next to us in Las Palmas.  I will radio them this morning.  Then we heard from an Aussie couple on a Tayana 55, who sailed along during the night within about ½ a mile of us.

At about 0200 ships time, Rob woke me to show me the lights of a ship behind us.  As I shook myself out of sleep, I realized they were coming straight at us!!  They were only about a mile away so I called them on the VHF and got a confirmation that they would alter course to avoid us.  It was a ship going from Rio to Connecticut, who had turned West to weather the swell before they resumed their Northerly course.  They passed within ½ a mile of us and you could see the ship pitching and rolling in the moonlit night.  They wished us a Merry Christmas and went on their way, a bit too close for my liking.

This morning I steered through the sunrise and I really didn’t want to stop and wake the others for their watch.  I love steering this yacht, it is a wonderful feeling.

We have had a fast 24hrs, and have seen Nutmeg sailing at consistently higher speeds than I have sailed her before.  The reduction in weight is noticeable – we’re probably close to a tonne lighter than we were 3 weeks ago, now we have used most of our fuel, water and food.  That said, our food stocks are doing well, and we still have lots of fresh fruit, milk, cheese, bread etc.  I don’t think we have run out of anything yet, although we don’t have heaps of food left.  Just had a couple of bacon baguettes for breakfast followed by an orange – lovely.

Hope all’s well

Ollie x