25 57N 78 09W

Osprey
John Bowering
Thu 6 Nov 2008 11:12
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.

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