Day 3 - No Autopilot!

Sawsealady
David Moore
Tue 28 Nov 2006 12:13
"26:01.179N 18:58.524W"
 
Minor setback
 
A small problem has arisen in the fact that we have a technical fault with the autopilot.  After our discussion about going down to Cape Verde Isles, or beating back to Canaries to find a Raymarine agent, it was decided that we could handle 'losing a pair of hands' for the sake of the all important helm!  So, we have rescheduled the watch rota and are now each taking 20 minute stints at the helm during our watch. Philippa said that not having an autopilot didn't put Christopher Columbus off; why should it us?
 
We had a little squall come in over our port quarter this morning.  Hold the Weetabix! The crew are now all a bit more ofay with reefing main and headsail.  Another big shift has been in starting to use sea water for washing up cutlery.  We have already used 25% of the first of two tanks.
 
We daily name our water bottles, and Doc Fielding is making sure we are all keeping hydrated.  Donald and Peter cooked up a superb Spaghetti Ragu last night. We have yet to have a 'Happy Hour'onboard but our first sundowner can't be too far off.
 
David spent 9 hours sewing the spinaker yesterday and has a lot more to do today !
 
Change in Crew
 
 
Team celebrations at Club Romano plus Groupies Terri Moore and Sandra McSwein who came down to wave us off.
 
Due to business comittments Bob Kerr was not able to join SSL.
In replacement, at short notice, Peter Gallagher joined for the ARC.
Like David, Peter enjoyed sailing Olympic Finns before moving on to Merlin-Rockets and other classes.
 
 
Still finding our feet - but enjoying it!