or so...
Rhapsode
Thu 28 Oct 2010 08:35
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23 04 N 20 21 W
There are two ailments which afflict people daft
enough to put to sea in a small boat for days on end. The first is wet feet from
the water constantly sloshing about in the bottom of the cockpit and the second
is a sore bum.
The latter can be allieviated to some extent
by standing up, holding onto to something solid and sway with the boat. However,
as the more observant will be ready to point out, this adds to the discomfort of
the former.
I offer no cure.
We are regularly being double-dunked. Nope, that's
not in my dog-eared first edition of Nelson's lexicon. Sailors will understand
perfectly what it means. For land-lubbers - it's when water sloshes into the
cockpit as the boat is pushed over to one side by a large, wet wave
and then gets another dose when it goes back the other way.
Andrew lost his virginity today! There were
dolphins a'plenty on his watch this morning and they were full of acrobatics -
must have a good breakfast. We had a regular flow of 5 metre swells going trough
at the time mostly with steep fronts which the dolphins used to surf down
towards to the boat then round the bow and back to catch the next wave. Quite a
spectacle.
Half way there now and we're finally in the
tropics. Still hoping for a Sunday arrival.
One casualty of all the lolloping - the automatic
pilot thinks the rudder is permantly hard a' port. Since it isn't it means that
the feed back unit has either broken or become disconnected. I do not intend
venturing out to the aft deck, chuck everything out of the locker to find out
which. Too much double dunkings going on for that kind of escapade at present.
It just means that if we need the engine we won't be able t use the auopilot.
For the time being our Hydrovane is coping admirably.
Happy sailing from three wet-footed, sore-arsed
sailors.
P, M & A.
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