Atlantic Crossing Day 3 15:59.8N 31:20.1W
Atlantic Crossing Day 3 - Wednesday 1st March 2023 Why do we write day three, asks the mate, when it’s day four. Ah well, I reply, the end of day three is around 1600 ships time, or 1700GMT which also corresponds to the start of the next day. Oh, says the mate, I see.. So back to day three, even though it’s really (well nearly day four) day four – for those at home keeping up, I write this at 1430 ships time/1530 GMT. I refuse to use UT as GMT is what Harrison proclaimed when he solved longitude for the benefit of the rest of the world (a fellow Yorkshireman to boot). Back to life onboard: it was a lumpy start to the night. The swell built from nowhere to a full on 3m side-swiping the ‘wind waves’ that were running about 2.5m on a 6 second period. Not conducive to sleep, or in fact doing anything really. Hanging on below is the best we could manage. But, before the swell had started, I had cooked roast sausages, potatoes and carrot. I had convinced the mate that the carrots were going off (as they were) and so we had a decent dinner. Not so tonight – the mate says we must have pasta again (luckily, I’ve saved a couple of sausages). The duogen keeps getting clogged with Sargasso weed. To clear it, we need to do it approximately every two hours (this job is a bit if a pain as we have to slow down, balance on the stern of a ‘bucking bronco’ boat, raise it and pull the weed off. The weed usually falls on my head – the mate keeps well away from it, naturally)… We aren’t wholly sure of our water consumption as the gauge isn’t working. We have a new one already, but it’s in the UK with my friend Pete. We are about to test out the water maker, but ideally this needs to have the duogen working at its best so we have to clear that first. The seas have been lumpy again and both of us have had the odd sense of humour failure, but we are doing well under the circumstances. The gribs tell me that the swell will die down over night and the wind will ease a bit. I believe this when I look out and observe the scene, so I fully expect to look forward to a good and calm day tomorrow. Maybe we’ll get some proper trade wind sailing as promised by all the books etc… Until then, needless to say the number 4 is still strapped down on the foredeck – but it’ll be up tomorrow!! Unless it isn’t… I’ll finish on this good news: the sun is shining and it’s nice and hot, plus Stargazer from 1300GMT yesterday to 1300GMT today made good some 160NM – all with a reefed genoa only. There are no slow, Frers/Berret designs. It’s way to early to give an ETA at St Lucia, but with speeds like that we can hope positively! ps The time is now 1640 ship’s time and we have just fitted three clearing lines on the duogen, as per the manufacturer’s instructions (aren’t we good, reading those!) The lines appear to be working in that the duogen is charging, however weed is already around the lines. This may cause some drag and hence loss of speed so we may have to rethink them, but hopefully not - we’ll see. |