Day 2
Digiboat's "Product Testing"
Simon Blundell
Thu 26 Sep 2013 04:30
36:19.99'N 003:39.45'W
0530LT
26/9
Wind dropped off
tonight as usual, now just 2-4kn NE, so putting along gently at 750rpm but
managing around 8kn with help from a bit of current flowing towards Straight and
the Atlantic. good first day averaging 7.5 kn for 180nm
run.
Today the breeze
peaked at just 12 kn on the quarter, but allowed us to get some sailing. We
played with all the white ones today in various combos, starting
with staysail and mizzen, then pulled the staysail and gybed, then genny
and mizzen, then pulled the main as well. The light trailing breeze struggled to
move our 90 ton maxing at 5.5kn..But still a pleasant sail with engine off for 8
hrs.
Previous user had
left us a nice surprise with a very poorly furled mizzen main (the mains have
in-mast furling), which had me in the chair for an hour zooming up and down
clearing the jams as Ryan and Jed hand winched in and out until we tightened the
furl and release the mizzen. Fortunately the main didn't present any problems
and slid out easily with the hydraulics. It does make it easy not needing to go
head to wind for mainsail setting/dropping all the time!
Otherwise a fairly
slow relaxed days sail on the Med in perfect weather. A few odd jobs and engine
checks, fixed nav lights and continued work on the nav electronics, which has
become a tear out and redo from scratch scenario.
No sashimi yet to
accompany the sunset G&Ts, (as expected from pretending to fish in the Med)
but with plenty of fresh and varied food on board this early in the journey, we
weren't left wanting for cocktail snacks. Julie cooked a tasty vegetarian
spag-boll, which the rest of us carnivores garnished with various farm animal
parts that we could lay our hands on before the spag went
cold.
Robbo continues his
logistical and military organisation of the boat and crew. I'm somewhat more
accustomed to being well prepared then winging-it, but so far am enjoying the
enhanced discipline, not sure about the 0600 foredeck parade followed by
callisthenics (actually they haven't started yet, but I'm sure they
will!)
70 miles to the
Pillars so we should go through to the Atlantic later this afternoon, always
good to pass through here in daylight for the phot opportunity. Everyone's
practicing whistling the theme from the Guns of Navarone in
preparation.
SJB.