Scudding along through turquoise seas
A year afloat: to the Caribbean and back
Sam and Alex Fortescue
Tue 19 Jul 2011 17:45
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39:42.51N
062:45.18W
It has been a blistering 24 hours. Summer Song has
reeled off some 150 miles surfing at incredible speed down large waves. In just
an hour yesterday, Alex clocked 10 miles run and our average for the day wasn't
far off eight knots. It has been exhilarating, with great white-nosed waves
boiling up above us astern and picking up Summer Song to bowl her along. From
the fo'c'sle berth, there is a real sense of flying as the bow is lifted up and
propelled ahead, the water bubbling past the hull.
We reefed down for a quieter night, but there was
still a sense of great invisible forces surging around us. It was a night of
cloudy moonlight, so every now and then the crest of a wave would suddenly be
illuminated close to us. By the morning, the winds had dropped and we were
wallowing a little in the residual seas. A fearsome looking band of dark cloud
sidled up from astern, but instead of unleashing strong winds, it brought with
it warm drizzle and calm. It passed overhead and the wind slowly returned -
again from the southwest.
All in all, we're making good progress towards
Flores in the Azores. At this pace, we'll be there in perhaps 10 days. It is
hard to sleep in these conditions, so we're hoping the sea will flatten out a
bit, but the boat has no problem dealing with the conditions. If things do
continue like this, it'll be a quick journey. The waves are strangely beautiful,
with flecks of turquoise where the sun shines through the crests. It's still
warm, though, and Elise says that but for the waves, it reminds her of sailing
in Sweden
Just moments after posting my disparaging comments
regarding the fish-eating squid lure yesterday, we struck a sea beast. The line
went whizzing out in great long snatches, electrifying the atmosphere in the
cockpit. We sheeted out the sails to spill wind and slow down, and the skipper
began reeling the fish in. It jumped clean out of the water in its attempt to
free itself, but we soon had a gorgeously coloured blue and yellow mahi-mahi
gulping on the cockpit sole. A shot of Teachers whisky (sorry Graham) dispatched
the fish, which weighed in at about 10 pounds. I filleted it carefully and we
had the first instalment for supper - deliciously baked by Elise with dill
and soy sauce.
Part two is on the menu for tonight, when Chris is
wearing the chef's hat in our wildly pitching galley. Can't
wait...
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