0600 on Thursday 6th November. We had a some decent sailing for a few hours
during the latter stages of crossing the Gulf Stream but now have almost a
flat calm and are motoring with a speed over the ground of 6 knots. TheGulf
Stream crossing was straightforward with just a moderate swell. Finn was a
little uncomfortable for a while but soon found his sea legs. He is on the
8-12 watch with Jonathan on the 12-4 and John on the 4-8. Although we had a
good forecast on departure from Ft Lauderdale with nil storm warnings we
have overnight recieved notification of a Typhoon just off Venezuala which
is predicted to head north towards us and will be in our area on Monday. If
we are fortunate in having some wind we should be well to the east of the
predicted rout of the storm. If the wind continues to have a holiday we may
have to look at a possible refuelling stop. Jonathan cooked a great meal
last evening and although we were short of wind it was a pleasent clear
night.Osprey is working well with only minor but irritating faults left by
the workers in Florida. Wonderful people however the standard of workmanship
was low and most jobs which we had done to the boat had to be reworked three
or four times before it was correct. The fitting of the new glass to the
pilot house caused us great concern as several panes cracked and we could
not see what was causing it. The third re-fit was completed Tuesday evening
and we are still watching the glass closely. The general conclusion was that
the edges had been nicked whilst being cut and ground which produced the
cracks when the heat of the sun was on it. Nevertheless we were sufficiently
concerned to get a second glass team to look at the installation and glass
type. We were reasured by them and can but believe them whilst keeping an
eye on it. The stainless steel gooseneck at the mast took three goes to
manufacture so that it fitted and it is really still not properly polished
but we can deal with that later. When we went up the mast to check the
fittings we also found the riggers had fed the Spinaker halyard through a
bottle screw so it would never have worked and the split pins on the main
furling system had not been splayed. Indicative really of the whole skill
and standards level. I doubt we will be heading back to Florida to do work
on the boat anytime soon. These frustrations added to the relief at getting
out to sea and closing the cover on a book that seemed determined to stay
open.