38 29N 28 46W
Osprey
John Bowering
Sun 7 Jun 2009 18:15
Well, wonders will never cease and for the first time since the first two days out of Antigua we have sailed for the whole period. What a way to finish this leg, we flew Big Blue all day yesterday and in too the night - this made for some hairy moments. The most interesting being at 0300 hrs, the wind veered and the chute was across our bow pretty damn quick. So Charles hollered for John, and between the two of them they quickly tacked putting "Big Blue" on the starboard side. The wind continued to veer, giving an interesting last hour to Charles's watch with speeds reaching 8.6 knots. Come 0400 hrs, the watch changed and with the wind now being on the beam we dowsed "Big Blue" and in its place unfurled the Genoa & the Main - we were still making an average of 7 knots. This continued till mid morning, by which time the wind had dropped so to maintain our speed we decided to deploy the "Iron Sail", and so we have slowly watched the miles to go disappear.
As I write this the Iha do Faial is off our port side, as we run parallel down to the south eastern tip and the marina at Horta - we have 5.5 nm to go before we head around the headline for the final few miles in to the sheltered waters.
The most unusual effect has been produced on one member of the crew - Crazy Kuki. Gone is the seasickness patch, and she has largely been upright today and in the past half hour she has changed out of her pajamas (the only garments she has worn for the entire passage) and now looks almost respectable!
Last night, with the clocks going forward as mentioned in the Blog Charles had trouble getting any sleep prior to his watch. So he decamped from "The Middle Kingdom" to the Pilothouse, wrapped in his sleeping bag. The final bag of pop corn was popped, and the other two decided that Charles looked like a Native American wrapped in his blanket. This led to a hilarious renaming session, I will leave you to guess who each individual is but here are the names:
"Big Belly Chief Talk Alot"
"Black Squaw Sleep Alot"
"Young Brave Red Face Alot"
"Little Bear Much Fur"
So it is with joy in our hearts, and with the strains of "Land of Hope & Glory" that the Motley Crew of SY Osprey are fast approaching Horta, hoping to be in time for a trip to the pub.