Pictures from the crossing

Roysterer
Peter & Penny Hesleden
Sat 22 Dec 2012 13:08
How best to decribe the crossing?  Pictures tell the story but which ones?  Penny will probably want different ones so we might see another blog from Penny.
 
The crossing was a real mixture of conditions.  We had strong winds to start with and in the third week we were becalmed only managing 100 miles in 3 days (compared to our normal distance of around 150 miles per day).  Our twin headsails arrangement on a single foil worked well when the wind was right behind us but was no good if the wind was more than 30 degrees off the centre and it was difficult to change the sail plan.  All in all I would say we would have faired better with a more conventional arrangement.
 
None of us got seasick (in the case of Penny and I thanks to Stugeron taken for the first week). 
 
We found quite a few flying fish on our decks, they seemed particularly attracted to the cockpit.  In a few instances we were able to scoop theslippery things up and hurl them back into the sea.  We also saw some dolphins, gannets and Egrets and Xavier also saw a large turtle.
 
Breakages were not too bad; we lost our windvane, one of the kitchen lights are not working, the generator is displaying a fault but is still working and the bow thruster is not working.  The loss of the windvane caused us to use the Autohelm more which consumed power which meant that we used a lot of disel charging the batteries so when we were becalmed we didn't have enough diesel to motor.  It was difficult to see onthe position reports at least a dozen boats overtake us whist we were wallowing in the slight swell doing 1 knot.
 
All in all I have to say that I don't have the patience for these long crossings and I don't think I will be doing many more.  Penny has said never again, but we shall see!
 

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