14/12/07 2:30 PM
As advertised the wind has shifted and stayed ENE
Force 4. We’ve still got the Asymmetric up but the course is almost due
South. We’ll keep on like this for
a few hours but then will have to think again. If we carry on we will have to make up
an additional 140 miles when we hang a right. It’s a hot afternoon and the cloud cover
is beginning to fill in.
17:00
The Wind Stays ENE. We will drop the Asymmetric before dark
and carry on with a poled out yankee.
If we’re too slow we will motor over night to make up some of the excess
Easting. Tomorrow afternoon the
wind should go stronger and more Northerly in which case we could Gybe and stay
more or less on course.
Nik’s computer has miraculously returned from the
dead. It must have been just knocked out. He has now backed
everything up so it if dies again it won’t be so serious.
18:00
Wind down to 10 knots from behind. Not really
enough at the moment to warrant poling out the yankee, so the unfamiliar sound
of a 240 horse power diesel invades our consciousness... The Asymmetric actually furled okay this
time as there was very little wind.
20:00
Steve Nik and I have just finished dinner, I’m
about to have a shower and the fish line whirs into life. It turns out to be a long slim snake
like “Pipe Fish” which Steve spurns,
Actually while he was spurning it, it unhooked itself.
20:20
Engine off. Pole out. We can make 6 1/2 knots on course so we’ll give it a
go.
15/12/07
6AM
Solid Grey Morning. As I come on watch it begins
to sprinkle lightly. Wind stayed NE
most of the night and boat speed maintained 6-7 knots. A rolling
night for all sleepers.
Wind projection suggests that sometime late tomorrow we will
either run out of wind completely or what there is will be on the nose. I
suppose it had to happen sometime.
The sprinkle becomes a deluge. There is only one squall showing on
the 48 mile screen of the
radar. It is about 6 miles in
diameter and directly overhead. The
wind it brings gives great boat speed.
9:15
The wind settles in to the NE so after 12 days and
2306 miles at sea we find ourselves on a Starboard tack for the first time. We’re able to steer about 15 degrees West of course but this is
fine as we have an 18 miles cross track error in the bank from our earlier
Easting.
The top spreader has damaged the
mainsail which will have to come off to be repaired in Rio as well as the yankee. When I
bought the boat I chose the swept back spreader option with jumper struts in
order to avoid running backstays.
In the end Selden (the mast maker) said we had to have the runners as
well. So now we have the worst of both worlds, swept back spreaders AND running
backstays. It is very difficult to
avoid sail damage running downwind with the sweptback spreaders on this
boat.
11:00
AM
24 Hour run 178 miles of which we
motored 9 miles in 2 1/3 hours. 420
miles to go. ETA currently Monday
afternoon at 2PM, as boat speed is over 8 knots
at the moment we might be a bit
later.
