Day 12. Position 15:08.162N 043:53.791W
Stravaig
Thu 4 Dec 2008 21:07
started as normal - so no wind, no sun, no fish, no whales and no birds!
Then all of a sudden the peace and tranquillity around us was broken by the
cries of 'fish,fish' from on deck. We had caught one of the rarest, largest,
fastest and most beautiful of game fish in The Atlantic, a Sailfish. It was
spectacular! As if this wasn't enough for our wee hearts to contend with for
one day! No sooner had we let the fish go (only because it had a big pointy
bit at the front that looked a bit dangerous!) and the wind began to fill in
from a nearby squall (along with the rain!) so off went the engine and up
went the sails! Yipeeee! We managed to keep this going for around 3 hours
with winds of up to 16 knots and boat speed of over 10 knots before it was
back to 'normal' - nae wind! So on went the donkey....again! Boooo!
Looking ahead, the forecast is suggesting that we are going to be stuck with
this pattern of wind for the next few days - no wind then a short spell of
stronger winds and squalls, no wind then more wind plus squalls.. and so on,
until the 7th when the forecast is for the winds to become more settled and
to increase to around 16-20 knots......all the way until St Lucia we think.
So the plan here is to try to catch up with our sleep over the next few days
while things are relatively calm so that we can fully enjoy the winds that
we hope are coming our way - not before time!
According to the ARC web site we are sitting 9th overall and still the 3rd
Oyster with only Sundowner (82) and Sotto Vento (655) ahead of us. We are
delirious about this placing but still very sceptical. The winds we had
today should have helped us so we're hoping that we may even have edged up
the fleet slightly by the time we report our positions to ARC headquarters
tomorrow lunchtime.
We have less that 1,000 miles to go now so we can almost smell the rum!!
Three photos today; one of Alex doing what he loves best - landing a fish,
but some fish!; One of the Sailfish itself; and one of Cameron and Scott on
watch this afternoon while it was raining!
