Course  240  

 

Speed 5.5 kts

 

 

 

Fast, downwind sailing today. 

 

Another night of sailchanges in light, flukey winds which is horrible for sleep patterns for those off watch, but by 3am we had settled on twin, poled out headsails and we have blasted into the night and this morning at 5 - 6 knots.

 

The weather GRIB shows yet another calm forming in our area but we reckon that by heading south of west we shall avoid it and keep the boat speed we need to make the flight home - here's hoping.

 

We caught another Dorado this morning, which makes it into the sailing update because of the very slick drill we now have for dealing with this.  You can't land a big fish (this one was 4lb 4oz) whilst sailing at 6 knots, so here's what we do:

 

Tim grabs the rod and handles playing the fish.

 

Ricky grabs the tiller and turns hard to port to bring the wind onto the beam.

 

Jez heads to the foredeck, as he does so, releasing the halliard for the smaller headsail and lighter boom.

 

Ricky keeps boat beam on with tiller, Jez gathers up the sail on the deck and ties it down, Tim smiles a lot and winds in.

 

Jez heads back to cockpit, dives below and reappears with a bottle of cheap voda and a syringe.

 

Jez takes tiller, Ricky takes gaff, Tim lands fish in cockpit - where it's not happy and is subdued with a shot of vodka to the gills and a bash or two on the head with a winch handle.

 

We turn back downwind, raise the small jib as we do so and are back to full speed within 5 minutes.

 

It isn't always this slick but we are getting practised at the process now.

 

20 minutes later we have the fish filleted and in the fridge.  Dorado for tea tonight !

 

 

 

We are fine but know that you have taken a battering from wind and tides.  Here's hoping that Canvey Island is still there and that you are all safe.  Hopefully the limited info that has passed to us is a bit exagerated but the Tollesbury version for which we have lots of detail has involved a massive tide. 

 

Jez is happy that Juno (his boat) has been reported safe. 

 

The Ashes updates aren't much more cheerful either.

 

On a high note, Tim produced a fantastic roast beef with boiled potatoes and peas last night.  Dinner was served at the cabin table (athough the crew chose not to dress formally for dinner).  This was done with a pressure cooker and then browned in the oven.  It was a big joint so we are expecting to be eating beef in dishes for the next week or so, starting with beef curry on Saturday night.

 

Natural History.

 

Still seeing lots of Madiaran Storm Petrels

 

Loads of flying fish today.  They seem to be being spooked by the boat and look like silver dragon flies as they skim away.  They regularly fly, hit the surface and then skim away again like a flat stone skimmed across a pond.  3 - 6 inches long, Flat stubby heads

 

Dave - What we are calling Madieran Storm Petrels are ~ 10 - 12" wingspan so white faced storm petrel doesn't fit as this was approx 2'.

 

 

 

Dave - For Tollesbury weather and taking a walk to Juno - I was going to ask - thanks

 

Em - No swimming while we have wind so no shark issue

 

Granny Rowles - Trampoline must be better weighted this time

 

William R - hope you are feeling better now

 

Jason - weather important to us. please keep feeding. We use the wind from the weather section at mailasail.com (as per blog).  We cant pull the full pressure maps as too much data.  Can you look ( sure you can figure out how) and offer any routing advice as we c see lots of dead air ahead on the back of lows in the next 72 hours.  Chris has been doing this but is off the air at present.