Day 1 atlantic
Sarah Grace goes to sea
Chris Yerbury and Sophy White
Wed 7 Dec 2005 17:20
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Atlantic Passage Day 1, 7th
December 2005.
We are six hours into the
passage, and the mountains of Santa Antao are fading into the haze
astern. Heading WSW, the seas here are calm because we are being
shielded from the NE swell by the Cape Verde chain. This effect will
sadly lesson over the next few hours, and we will be back to the downwind 'Rock
and Roll' with the saucepans in the cupboards crashing as per usual.
We all feel much calmer and more settled now that we have actually started, and
are making brilliant progress, flying along at 7 knots,
goosewinged.
Mimi is feeling very well,
and watching 'Carry on Nurse' with Otti. I hope this continues, and it is
possible that she still has her well earned sea legs from our passage here.
The water we took on
yesterday from the commercial dock is chock full of brown floaty stuff which is
a shame, I guess we should boil it before imbibing. At least we have
a tank of Canaries water left to drink (80 gallons) before we have to deal with
the brown stuff, which is in a separate tank. Steve said to me,'Do you
dare me to drink some!?'
Steve actually had a
phonecall on the satellite phone from his sister today! He is back to
taking sextant readings at all hours of the day, working on celestial
navigation
Our friends Dave and
Sonya from 'Gabrielle of Dart' came to see us off last night with a welcome
bottle of champagne, which I found very good for nerves. They also
bought six paperback books with them, which is brilliant, as I now have
something to read for the next three weeks.
We have decided to head for
an Island south of St Lucia called Becquay, where there will be many other
boats. We hope to get there by Christmas, but we are cutting it rather
fine. Father Christmas will of course arrive wherever we are, but
Christmas dinner will wait until the anchor is down.
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