one week down- some more to go!
Christine's Atlantic Circuit
Peter Lansdale
Thu 17 May 2018 16:45
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38:16.6N 047:07.3W
Well, I write to you today with us having turned
slightly south of east, which those of you with a memory of their geography "O"
level/CSE/GCSE will realise is not quite the expected direction. That is because
the wind fell a little lighter and it was no longer enough puff to keep the
sails filled running due east. So a choice of whether to turn slightly north ,or
slightly south was required. A look at the chart soon showed that heading
slightly north would put us near to the line marking the limit of ice at this
time of year. Now we have all seen Titanic, and frankly some of
us could not bear the thought of listening to "my heart will go on"
yet again, so slightly south of our desired course it was! Still we will not
have to do it for too long before we will be clear of the influence of the
Labrador current and Newfoundland (the whole region is going to the
dogs by the sound of it...boom boom!) and we will be able to aim at the route
towards the western approaches.
A crew's life is subject to not only the vagaries
of the weather, but also the whim of the skipper. Skippers come in various
grades, from laid back easy going ,to a modern day captain Blythe. Ours of
course is not at an extreme, but lies somewhere in the pleasant mid range,
however he might aspire to a more "tough love" approach and has been trying out
his influence by finding stuff for us to do. he says it is to keep our morale up
or to take our minds off the icebergs that might float down from the north each
laden witha cargo of hungry polar bears. Still, he has allowed me time off to
post the following pictures of things been fixed, Lynn slaves away on a bimini
repair using the speedy stitcher which looked like the most manual sewing
machine ever thought of. Ian and "the Boss" work on restoring a blind unit for
one of the hatches. These where both first time successes, but there some other
stuff that might need a second session, including the foredeck light Ian is
working on. Manuela kindly supports the less PC astute in
producing these missives so is always fixing our handiwork! However since she is
also the photographer the pictorial evidence was lacking. I believe her quest
for the perfect Portuguese man o'war picture continues and the shrieks of
delight at approach of more dolphins as i write have a definite Gallic tone to
them. |
