Day 98 - Leg 5 Day 21 at Sea 'Winds, Lunar Eclipse and Equator'
Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Wed 30 Sep 2015 15:33
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This certainly has been a more interesting few
days.
Firstly, in the early hours of Monday morning we had a
total lunar eclipse. This was quite a sight, as you can still
see the moon's shadow and also the fact that it is a 3 dimensional sphere
rather than the normal flat face. The face of the moon was brightly
coloured brown, red and orange, and we were treated to a spectacular
display of shooting stars. I say we but, as I had been on mother watch on
Monday, the previous day, I actually stayed in bed for the first full night's
sleep since leaving Ascension Island!!
Whilst on mother watch I had baked a cake, out of a packet but the thought
was there! I has also put a bottle of champagne in the fridge. The
reason for this was that at around 07.00 on Monday morning we crossed the
Equator. Not only are we in the western hemisphere but we are now in the
northern one as well. We all rose bright and early to celebrate
crossing the equator and, at is traditional to make an offering to
Neptune, I dropped overboard a slice of cake and a few drops of champagne
and wished for fair winds and calm seas.
There are versions of the tradition usually involving the
youngest crew member that has never sailed across the equator before.
This can range from dressing up to head shaving, boot polish to whatever.
However, matters got out of hand in the Royal Navy and there were stories
of young sailors being sexually assaulted, so the practice has been
banned. However, Sam was quite safe as we settled for champagne and
cake!!
Later that morning, I did a visual check of the fuel
gauges to verify Paul's mathematical calculations. Paul had estimated
that we had 800 litres of fuel, but the gauges were showing more like 550 to 600
litres. This meant that rather than having fuel to motor for 900 + miles,
we actually had enough to motor for only 600 - 675 miles. We have had no
wind for the past few days, but we still have to cross the doldrums and
there is not much wind forecast north of there so, bearing in mind that there
was just enough wind to sail at around 4 knots, we hoisted the sails and
turned off the engine.
Neptune must have appreciated our offering because the winds picked up
over the next hour or so and, rather than the 9 - 12 knots forecast, we
were getting 13 - 17 knots, which is the difference between boat speed of 4 - 5
knots and 6 - 8 knots. I am not superstitious but.....
Later that day, I was in the galley when I heard a
shriek from upstairs. There are thousands of flying fish in the area
and one had leapt out of the water, flew across the cockpit, hit Ant on the
shoulder and continued to the far side of the boat and back into the
sea. I don't know who was more surprised, Ant or the fish!!
Still on Monday, much more in the log today, we had a weird looking dolphin
swimming alongside the boat. It had a very stubby head and, eventually we
realised what was so different. Firstly, it was on its own which is
unusual behaviour for dolphins, they usually swim in groups of 6 to groups of
several hundred. However, what was really different was that this dolphin
was blind. The strange shape of its head was due to the fact that it had
no eyes and its head was totally smooth. It was a good size dolphin, so it
could obviously catch fish, and was quite happily playing around the boat,
surfing in our bow wave. Its radar is obviously working better than
ours!!
Yesterday and today were pretty much the same sailing conditions, good
winds and also waves from directly astern so we could sail downwind with the
main on one side of the boat and the genoa poled out on the other (gull-winging)
and without too much rolling.
Eventually, around 17.00 we were hit by some nasty squalls so we reefed the
sails and then, bang on forecast at 18.00, the squalls had passed, the wind had
fallen from 30 knots to 4 knots within the hour and we have hit the start of the
doldrums. Sails away, engine on and off we go again.
We should be in the doldrums for the next 3 days, so are expecting very
light winds from every direction, plenty of intermittent squalls and Saragossa
weed. I will let you know how we get on in the next
post. |