Day 4:
Purple Mist
Skipper: Kate Cope
Thu 12 Jan 2023 10:10
Welcome to Day 4 on a small boat in a big sea. Morning has broken and it’s a cloudy sky with big cumuli nimbus clouds …that’s the stormy ones . Wind is a heavy 20-25kts and increases to 32kts as the stormy squalls pass overhead. We’ve 2 reefs in the main and the teeny tiny orange storm jib. After “spinnaker-gate” yesterday we can’t fly any proper jibs as the forestay ( front wire that holds up the mast) still has the S2 tangled around it. So it’s just the storm jib
Despite the lack of sails the speed is pretty good so we don’t seem particularly hampered by lack of a proper jib. The waves are pretty big as well, screwing the boat around, however George the autopilot is still working well to keep us heading towards Grenada. I’m looking at the sea and the wave height thinking I don’t know how anyone rows across the Atlantic.
It’s fair to say we are both physically shattered after yesterdays spinnaker shenanigans. It took a good 6-8hrs after the event before either of us could sleep. I think the adrenaline keeps you going. I had endless energy and just kept finding more and more tidying up jobs to do like relashing the offending spinnaker to the forestay extra tightly to ensure not a scrap of wind could pull it open. I finally went back to my bunk 18hrs after I had first awoken. Now we are both very sleepy and last night I was having 15 minute naps on the cockpit beanbag to top up the sleep deficit.
Of course once the adrenaline wears off then you feel the pain. My quads feel like I’ve run 20k and my knees are so beaten and bruised I can’t kneel down. Claire has impressive bruises especially on her inner arms where they were clinging to the mast and her legs from begin thrown against the rig.
Anyway that’s all in the past. The boat is safely sailing and we will recover. It’s going to be a quiet day today. The snack bag is still groaning with goodies and we still have fresh fruit. Tomatoes and cheese. We don’t have a fridge so I need to dive down the cool box to see if the frozen longlife milk is still keeping the fridge cool. As everyone advised we are really not eating much at all. Yesterday I had a few snacks only. I could step off in Grenada with the body of a model …..then again I can hear Graces date cake calling me …cake for breakfast anyone?
Right I can see a squall coming so I’m going to dive inside the cabin taking after my friend Les who’s nickname is “Captain Staydry”. These photos are all taken within 30mins so you can see how quickly the weather changes.
