Fw: Sadko update 16 June 1200
Sadko
Martin Lamport
Sat 16 Jun 2012 16:49
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Position 35deg42'N, 43deg24'W.
This is our fifth day of running down the south
west trades under spinnaker. Life on board has taken on a regular
routine. I get up around 6AM and after a cuppa Hugo, Paul and
I hoist the spinnaker before breakfast while Lou steers.
This is always entertaining, as I could swear the
brute spends all night in the fore peak dreaming up some new way to foul up and
frustrate our efforts at a smooth deployment. Each trick is countered with
a mitigation strategy, like tying the corners together so they cannot tangle in
the bag, but the sail always seems to have a new one up its
snuffer. To add to our woes, one of the poles has been breaking free of
its top fitting on the mast car and threatening to crash to the deck,
braining any unfortunate who happens to be in the way. Turned out a
little locking screw was missing and I had to manufacture one, which seems
to have cured it.
But the effort is worth it as it gives us an extra
knot of speed and we are now really blasting off the miles towards Flores.
ETA next Wednesday if this weather holds. We keep the sail up all day
and put it away at night to run under main alone, which seems to give the
easiest steering, though like most boats Sadko hates running dead down
wind.
Nothing much else noteworthy has occured. We
see the occasional ship and exchange greetings by radio, but a sailing boat on
the opposite course did not respon to our VHF calls the other
day. Bit stand-offish of them if
you ask me!
Signing off
Martin
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