ARC Log - Day 11
Global Yacht Racing's P42
Global Yacht Racing
Thu 4 Dec 2008 22:00
Author: Ric
Another very boring, slow day. It continued to rain all through last night and all of this morning - we have to keep the hatches closed to keep the water out, but down here in the tropics that turns the boat into a honky sauna. Although it's warm, it's impossible to get anything dry - everyone is constantly damp, and everything you sit or lie on is damp too. Cooking turns the place into a steam room - sleeping is very difficult until you're so tired you'd sleep anywhere.
Despite our jungle environment, people are pretty happy. Life's simple, and we've all accepted that we have to spend almost another week at sea. We've spent some time stocktaking our food and water today, and at our current rate of consumption we've got enough to last us until the 11th. With the wind improving all the time now, I'm expecting to be in St Lucia by then.
Today was Haribo day again - simple pleasures! Hopefully the sweets did something to offset the faux-pas in the galley this evening - it turns out that rice is really salty if you cook it in sea water. Who'd have thought?! Cutlery status: all forks accounted for.
After hearing reports from other boats in the fleet about scary squalls last night, we were braced ready when a particularly ominous line of cloud snuck up behind us. As the wind veered we dropped the kite and gybed onto port. Apart from a soaking, the wind was rarely more than 20 knots, so we've escaped for now. All credit to the crew though - dropping and hoisting the spinnaker is now well rehearsed and happens without drama.
So we're settling into another night watch, under a bright half-moon, visible for the first time on this trip. It makes steering at night a lot easier - the gloom of previous nights is very disorientating when all you have is a compass to tell you that the boat is turning. The stern light of Nisida is still visible, probably about 6 miles away on our port bow.
Maybe tomorrow we'll try our luck at fishing again... that'll at least while away a few hours.