Plan B

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Sat 16 Nov 2013 17:52
20:18.9N 64:33.82W

Saturday 16th Nov, Day 12 and 1,573 miles run


Becalmed! Bloody hell are there any other tricks left in the weather locker
we wonder? I really hope the Caribbean turns out to be worth all this grief.

There we were calmly sailing along bang on target to arrive after dawn on
Sunday when the wind pretty much upped and died on us. It did not disappear
completely, but we have been making very slow progress at around 4 knots
over the ground. Plan B was to arrive on Monday - No of course it wasn't!
Plan B was to employ the services of our trusty and reliable Yanmar diesel
engine to up the pace a bit on Saturday night to make damn sure that on
Sunday morning we sail past the reef guarding the entrance to Gourda Sound
on the northern end of Virgin Gourda Island and drop our anchor into the
warm blue waters there and breath a huge sigh of relief.

So with the light northerly wind we were able to relax at last and enjoy the
sunshine that we had on Friday afternoon. Friday night was, at long last,
perfect ocean sailing: full moon all night, clear skies and vast rolling
Atlantic seas. The night passed without incident and Saturday morning saw
us still on course but travelling a bit too slowly. The huge Atlantic
rollers that are romping up and under us from behind are now simply majestic
and their long rolling sweep is completely without malice or threat. They
still tower over us reminding us of our vulnerability and insignificance,
but as they lift us up high into the sky, the view from the top is endless
and we are for those few moments the highest point around for hundreds, if
not thousands of square miles.

Time for a rest you might think after the torments of the past 11 days, but
you clearly do not know Sarah if you thought that! She has declared that she
will be spring cleaning the heads (showers and toilets) and my job list is
now headed by the need to start the gererator in order that I can vacuum the
entire inside of the boat. I do not recall hearing that Shackleton whipped
out the furniture polish and a duster on finally reaching the safety of a
whaling station in South Georgia - or did I miss that chapter? Of course she
is quite right in that as soon as we arrive in BVI, we will be getting
visitors alongside and can you imagine the shame of a grubby boat after a
casual saunter down from the USA?

Anyway the peace and quiet was rudely interupted around 1130 hours once more
by two sudden changes in our situation. Firstly the wind finally decided to
pick up and turn into a proper 15 - 20 knot Trade wind and about time too I
hear you all cry. But it was probably the sudden increase in our speed that
made a passing Mahi Mahi take a renewed interest in our very unrealistic red
rubber lure, optimistically shaped to resemble a squid. Quite how a small
squid might be powering through the ocean at 8 knots is possibly outside the
normal reasoning powers of a fish, so the gready bastard struck. Bingo, now
we are flying downwind at 8 knots with the fishing reel screeming as the
mahi mahi attempts to head off in another direction. We have been here
before and we crash tacked the boat and hove to, which brought all the
excitement to an end and allowed us to focus on reeling in the big fish and
getting all the gear out to land it. We got it to the stern and Sarah was
about to slide the big landing net under the fish, when the big shark made
its first pass. We were very mindful of hearing 'One Two' telling us the
other day how their Wahoo would have weighed more than 45 lbs, if the back
part had not been bitten off by a shark at the last momemt - so in our case
we scooped the fish up and clear of the water at once and set about the
usual process of gutting and filleting it. I get off lightly really as my
role ends once I have gutted it, and Sarah then sits on the back deck
carefully filletting it and preparing it for the fridge (and yes funnily
enough she also gets to cook it). Once all of this was done, we resumed our
journey south and as I write this we are back flying southwards having now
reefed our sails a bit in order to slow down. Never a dull moment. And yes,
the cleaning jobs are still on the list for this afternoon!

Had an email yesterday from Ruffian who are about 125 miles behind us now.
They had released us from our offer to stay with them, but have asked that
once they get close to Virgin Gourda, that we might weigh anchor and come
back out into the Atlantic to meet them and escort them in through the reef
in case of engine failure or whatever. This had always been our plan, so we
have reassured them that we will be there for them of course. They seemed in
good spirits but they must be exhausted.