Ships Log 10-12-07

Rebel T
Tim Walsh
Mon 10 Dec 2007 22:14

So, Dear Readers,

Not much to say today, The weather was chilly last night but OK about 20knts
just one or two slight 10minute showers.
During the night Ant, Jeff and me slept in the cockpit rather than the cabin
and we chatted for a few hours until the 2am. Jeff went below to sleep until
our 6am watch, Ant slept in the saloon. I chose to stay on deck. I got
slightly wet in one shower but nothing too much, enough to chase me into the
saloon all the same!!
As the 6am -10am watch came along the weather cleared and all crew stayed
outside, it was not a "lovely" day. but it was pleasent enough. Every body
felt subdued today, with the exception of Trevor who remained jolly all day.
I think that we are sensing that we are getting there....but not just yet.
It leaves me at least, wanting to arrive without further bad weather or
incident in some ways 600 odd miles is not much more given the distance we
have come already, but it is still a long way and time in its own right.

I cannot say for sure that the others are thinking along similar lines, but
most of us are thinking about our family and friends and getting to St
Lucia, the result is a degree of melancholy.

Yesterday evening Anthony played selected tracks from various iPods, it was
a great tonic and so we repeated it tonight, kind of a happy hour without
drink after the evening meal whilst washing up etc is being done.

Our expectations of the weather over the next few days are good, it should
be more of today's stuff, that will do us fine. Our hope to date has been to
arive St Lucia during light on Friday, but it may be after dark, it depends
on progress of course, but because we can only increase our averages
slightly it means there is not a great deal of scope to arrive sooner.
Our onboard systems have proven to be well chosen, the watermaker works
without problem and our electric charging abilities are better than we
expected. Our fridge/freezer still has solid ice and meat that has been with
us since Las Palmas and that is better than we hoped. The time put into the
telecoms is clearly paying off as these blogs show. We do in the light of
the telecoms need a better organisation of work space on the nav station, it
was not designed for charts and computers and all the supply sockets and
inverters they need. It is all working but not tidy. The changes that the
telecoms has made to onboard culture is immense and I would not want to go
backwards, so next project or next boat needs space and infrastructure to
accommodate these mod cons.

A short poem that sums up some of the crew feelings today comes to mind:

A watching how the sea behaves, for hours and hours I sit,
I know the sea is full of waves, I have often noticed it,
For on the deck each starlit night, the wild waves and the tame
I counts and knows them all by sight...and some of them by name!

But then I think, a bloke like me, ain't got no right to roam,
Why!, I am homesick when I puts to sea....and seasick when I'm home!!


I go now to the pics...When Jeff and I look these over, it is clear that
there is no bad weather shots and no bad moment shots, this of course being
because we are involved in sorting the problems at these times.
But it does mean hat in every picture we are having fun. We do have a lot of
fun onboard but there are other times that the log talks of that the pics
don't capture. I just thought I would share that observation with you all.

Good evening to Danielle, Sean and Lenny and Ronnie, I am told that they are
regular readers!! Hello!!


OK bye for now Tim XXX