Trip Update - 28th May 2009 Azores-UK Day 6

Nutmeg of Shoreham
Ollie Holden
Fri 29 May 2009 01:29


Position: 45:40:75N 18:23:70W

 

Another windy day.  After I wrote last night’s blog, the wind picked up some more so at midnight we put the 3rd reef in, and rolled the jib down to handkerchief-size.  The main with 3 reefs is about the size of Will’s Enterprise mainsail (if he can remember what that looks like).  We were still crashing along at over 7 kts and I don’t think either of us got much sleep.

 

Today has been grey, wet and lonely with no sea life whatsoever.  In fact it feels like a very different ocean to the first three days of whales, dolphins, turtles and seabirds. Tonight just after sunset I noticed a light less than half a mile away.  It turned out to be a yacht going the other way.  I raised him on the VHF and it was a 45 ft Dutch boat called “Saltram” who was singlehanding across to Halifax.  I must tell Poul & Kyra on ”Yara” to look out for him.  He hadn’t seen me – I think he was only looking at AIS targets and as we don’t have an AIS transponder, we didn’t show up on his screen – a great lesson in not relying on the technology! Anyway, it was a fluke to pass so close when we are still 400 miles from the nearest land.

 

On our “race” up the Spanish/French coast, we are now at the same latitude as La Rochelle, so we really nearly are in home waters!  We did 150 miles yesterday which is great for Nutmeg.  The wind has gradually veered round to the SE, so we are now bashing away on a close-hauled course with spray continually covering the boat and the decks awash.  Everything is damp down below and it is very hard to sleep as you get lifted and thrown out of your bunk on every wave.  It is so dark outside you can't even see the bow of the boat!

 

That’s all for now.