Day 9
Sadie
Tue 9 Jul 2013 10:00
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38:49.13n 13:30.14w
Morning Bloggers,
I am pleased to inform you that the wind increased
yesterday afternoon, enough to allow us to have some peace and quiet from the
engine. It died later, around 10pm just as the first watch was starting, but not
for long as at 0130 the foresail was unfirled and we have been sailing ever
since, on a beam reach doing about 5.5kts!! It's bliss. The weather today is
looking promising although a misty start, it certainly wasn't misty during the
night, the clear skies with no light pollution allows you to see so many stars
and shooting stars are a regular enjoyment for the night watch.
As suspected but not worried, my trip up the mast
was inevitable and so to pass the time while there was little wind, I took on
the challenge. There was a surprising amount of movement considering we were
motoring on a mill pond. My mission; to thread a line through the
spinnaker block at the top of the mast and feed it in to the mast, then
jiggle it about in order for tim to see it and grab it at the bottom. Our first
attempt was unsuccessful and this was when it started to get uncomfortable new
equipment was sent up to me and we soon had a line secured ready for when we get
a new halyard to thread in.
We had a first whale sighting which was exciting!
It was brief and only a few glimpses as he powered past us going the other way,
Tim heard the puff of its blowhole before the dark shape in the
water, we turned the engine off as quickly as we could to encourage him to
come say hello, our attempts were unsuccessful but it was amazing to hear how
peacefully quiet it was with the engine off and no wind belowing in our ears, a
little reminder of how far we are from any other vessel or land.
As I write this we have reached a milestone to our
waypoint of Madiera, it is now only 399 miles away, on the nose! Soon we will be
smelling the wine, fresh bananas and cake, oh we love our cake!
On the fishing front, we continued with our
successful lure on the line, we came a cropper though when we did have a bite as
the culmination of not slowing the boat down quik enough and Tim's clutch
control caused a fish we believed to be much bigger, to break the line! Now we
have installed a 35lb line on both rods, and have a plan to follow in the event
if we have another bite (if? ha, who am I kidding, we are bound to have a
bite!).
We had the first fillet o' fish last night with a
tomato sauce and pasta, it tasted magnificent, as to be expected from such a
fresh beast hooked from the water less than 24 hours before. Although there is
still frozen meat I think it will be fish again tonight, but no one is
complaining with that! Bacon sandwiches in a fresh farmhouse bloomer made by Tim
this morning, the years of experience have definately shone through in this
loaf!
Scrabble yesterday on the coach roof, but the
change in location didnt improve my chances and neither did they in the cocpit
for rummy after dinner, although we are talking Angus round to being more
competitive than conservative in his approach to be happy with second by
collecting all the low numbers to keep his count down. We can live in hope.
That's all for now, lets hope the winds continue!
~Sadie~
Quote of the Day (apologies for any days that have
been without a quote previous)
"The pessimist complains about the wind; the
optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails." William Arthur
Ward
Shout Outs:
To the boys at RBS Southend for naming the fish a
Stone Bass (Cherne) !! Come on you shrimpers!!
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