Day 20
Sadie
Thu 12 Dec 2013 17:14
15:24.301n
42:24.460w
Distance to
Antigua 1121 miles
Distance
Run today 140 miles
Course 300
Speed 6.5 kts
Sailing update New day same story.
25 - 30 knots blasting from the NE. Seas are rough but a little
more regimented which lulls us into thinking that we can predict the motion of
the boat and then regularly catches us out.
An interesting set of night watches as we took turns to hang on and keep
lookout from the main hatch. Once you are in a bunk the movement of
Sadie is amazingly smooth and it feels like we are drifting
gently along. The story from the cockpit is a bit different as you
can see the 4 and 5 metre monsters surging up behind you and then hissing under
the counter.
After some experimentation, our rig for these conditions is a well furled
genoa, poled out to port with both uphaul and downhaul to lock the pole in
place. The boat moves really well and the self steering is completely in
control, even as the waves are pushing us around by 30 degrees on
occasion.
Domestic
We are really in existance mode as it is too rough for much work or
play. We have tried reading but the combined effort of concentrating on
the text and moving with the boat is too much and it is really tiring.
We have broken out some podcasts held on the laptop and are now listening
to an old 5 live show on foreign ownership of Premier league clubs - much easier
to handle.
Dave Smart - and anyone else who knows how. We want to bottle some of
our Tuna. We have jars and a pressure cooker. Instructions please in
160 characters or less.
Natural History.
The seas here are alive with flying fish. They are being spooked by
Sadie as she passes and flocks (well, they are flying ) are skimming away as we
pass. They can fly for about 70 metres in this wind, then hit the sea and bounce
on for a further 30 metres.
Todays responses:
Em - so you have spotted our "sticky K". We have to hammer the key
and sometimes forget to edit before sending. We have developed letter
blindness as we have got used to it.
Sadie
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