Position 1200 UTC +0200hrs 8th December  15:36.00 N 51:43.00 W 

 

Well we’ve had a few things happen in the last 24 hours.  After a reasonable days sailing yesterday, we reefed down for the night and continued a reasonable course and speed till around 9pm when the watch changed.  There was a bit of lightening on the horizon but some way off.  Jennie took to her bunk for some sleep and Phil took over complete with waterproof jacket as there was a bit of drizzle in the air.  Before long the wind swung through 180 degrees and became very light and variable.  Time to drop the sails before they flog to death.  Just as that was done we got the wind and rain.  When I say wind, it was gusting at over 50 knots and when I say rain it was a torrent like nothing seen at home. Now the expectation was that this would be a short squall and would pass but it was still going at the end of the watch around midnight although the winds had dropped to 35 knots and the lightening, which covered the whole sky was less frequent.  Around 2am things died down enough for us to get some sail up and all was well for the rest of the night.

 

As dawn broke it was cloudy and over cast – perfect bread making weather with added sultanas in the loaf.  The sun came out and things improved.  During last nights winds, the burgee halyard had parted leaving the ARC flag flying but twisted and not able to be lowered so Phil went a little way up the mast to retrieve it.  In the afternoon we played odd one out which caused some crew banter and some doubt about the scorers numeracy!!!

 

Ritchie spent most of the morning fixing the water maker which was fine at making water, but intent on leaking all over Jennie’s cabin.

 

Later in the afternoon we passed very close to a catamaran.  Amid much joviality we called them on the radio to make contact and got a response.  Having lost all our carrots early in the crossing, we were looking to barter some fresh apples for some carrots.  The French lady radio operator said that they also had a bad night and did we have a forecast for tonight but she spoke little English.  We helped as far as we were able and then got onto the carrot issue.  Our initial request was met blankly so Phil tried out his French.  Unfortunately, no one knew the French for carrot so with typical English bravado on the vhf Phil asks, “Avez vous any carrots?” Unsurprisingly this didn’t develop cordial and fruitful communication either so we each wished one another well and gently sailed our own way....in our case still carrotless and with a surfeit of apples.

 

Late afternoon, we needed to lower the main but were not able to fully lower it and a section was still hoisted due to it jamming in the track about a third of the way up.  We managed to lower if but an inspection from the deck indicated that two sections of the track were not properly aligned.  That was visit 2 up the mast.  A temporary repair has been made which we hope will last the journey.