Day 10

Oyster Moon
Paul Foskett & Rhu Nash
Tue 6 Dec 2011 12:08
Position 17 21.80N 046 38.31.17W

Day 10 on the 6th December 2011

From 12.00 UTC on the 5th, to Noon on the 6th December, distance travelled Noon to noon run was 193 miles (log 9883)

Distance to go to just south of the island is 868 miles.

24 hour sailing report

The wind speed has increased through the night from 18 knots to 34 knots and the direction has not changed from 100 to 144 degrees.

This has made the sailing fast again as shown by the increase in noon to noon distance.

We sailed the night with the genoa having 2 reefs and main fully out, the boat speed was very good at anything from 6 to 7.5 knots.

We did launch the Parasailor yesterday morning and our boat speed increased to between 8 and 8.5 knots. However the wind speed also increased during the day so we decided to take it down as the wind gusts had got up to 32 knots. The best bit however was that we did record a maximum speed of 11.4 knots. The bow wave was spectacular and the noise of the water rushing past the hull was incredible.

No rain over the last 24 hours. However we have had more rain squalls pass about 4 to 5 miles to the North of us yet again. What a lucky break as when a squall passes by, the wind direction can change through 360 degrees. This will make the sailing very interesting for an hour or so.

Not much wild life day today, just flying fish and a few sea birds.

We are now sailing in company with three other boats, Moin a German boat about 40 feet long, and Marite 111 also 40 feet and Karacool the 53 foot CAT who is also one of our group boats.

We all left within about an hour of each other. Karacool is now 156 miles ahead of us in Oyster Moon. Moin is about 96 miles behind with Marita 111 about 75 miles behind us.

We have fitted to the boat a device called a DUO GEN, this creates 12 volt electricity either by wind power when we have the wind propeller blades on, or by water power when we put it into the water with the water propeller blade. In the water it creates electricity as the water turns the propeller.

Just after the 18.00 hour net, it stopped producing power, on checking the propeller it was covered in a big plastic sheet which had stopped the propeller from turning. This happened about 900 miles from any land, so it just goes to show how mans habit of throwing rubbish into the sea can have consequences hundreds of miles out to sea, not only for the wild life out here, but also us poor sailors as well.

Once cleared of this plastic the DUO GEN is working again.

More news on the next noon report

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