Light winds and a visitor
Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Sat 5 May 2012 12:16
Saturday 5th May (0700 hrs)
A much better day all round as the sea flattened out a lot, the sun shone,
the clouds vanished unfortunately taking the wind with them though!
Motor sailed all day and it gave us the opportunity to sort ourselves out
and get back into shape with nice showers and proper food.
Mid afternoon we saw whales breaching but sadly a long way off, so as
sightings go, it was rather underwhelming. A few flying fish and the odd
gannet graced us with their presence and then in the late afternoon we were
joined by Noddy.
Noddy is a Brown Noddy, one of the tern family and he/she decided that a
little rest sitting on our outboard engine on the gantry at the back of the
boat would be fun. This was a very small slippery and precarious landing
spot and frequently as the boat lurched off a wave, he was dislodged and
forced to fly a couple of laps around us before attempting another upwind
landing. Not all landings were successful, but it seemed to keep him and us
amused. He remained on board until dark and then left us.
Progress has been slower than hoped as the wind has headed us and with just
5 knots blowing, we are reduced at present to gently motor-sailing. We did
however get our latest personal 5 day updated weather forecast late last
night and it made interesting reading.....
We will be passing through no less than 3 fronts, the first two being pretty
straightforward but the third sounds pretty nasty. We are likely to be
sailing NE then SW at times to use the weather to our best advantage which
will sound crazy to non sailors. But the joy awaits us on Wednesday night as
we are to expect 30 knot winds (force 7) with squalls blowing 40 knots
(force 8) and 9ft confused seas. The wind is expected also to clock from
South to West to North during all this. No problem for Serafina, but no fun
for us!
However this is all days away and these things change so we can only
continue to sail on a fine reach and make as best time as we can for now and
just hope that Sarah gets to see some Whales at last.