Day 6

Ripples2
Sat 29 Nov 2014 20:44
Watch crews have a day off! Greg does not do the watches but is always 'on' if needed and in charge of course, weather watch and the general duties of skipper, but today he is putting in a twelve hour shift at the helm.
The watches are demanding as you are grabbing sleep at all times in the day and night. Typically one sits below an hour trying to rest and in charge of the kettle whilst the other is on the helm. We hardly ever all get together at one time.
Steering manually is difficult its a big boat. The auto helm is constantly fighting to keep us on course and the chart plotter is much like a satnav but with more data.
We eat in shifts although no one is eating much, more grazing throughout the day. I am chief cook, Luchi is a dab hand on lunch.his sandwiches are the best. I have had three small beers over the last five days,Claire,you will be proud of us, but I might need smaller clothes for the first few weeks home.
It's very cloudy today, sucking all the blue colour out of the sea but we are managing 8 knots in the now all familiar big swell. I am informed we are lying about 97th out of 200,which considering our delays at the start makes us very happy.
We are taking part in scientific research with around a hundred other boats collecting sea samples every three days to see the effect of dissolved old plastics on the ocean for Ocean conservation. org. A great way to get samples over a wide area.
The trip is as demanding as I envisaged, I hadn't factored in the constant poor weather so the tan isn't improving.


Nick
22:03.01N 28:31.01W