Cold and Wet
Where Next?
Bob Williams
Mon 18 May 2009 19:27
Course: Northeast Speed 4knots
Wind: North nor-west
Weather: Overcast, cold, No Fog (for now) Sea: slight
Day's Run: 99 miles
Last night, two words: bloody awful. The barometer had bottomed out at about 7 pm, the frontal system was passing through and with it rain, cold and light variable winds. We spent much of the night drifting and rolling badly in the seas left over from the southerly of the previous few days, possibly exacerbated by being over a trench in Brown's Bank. Everything was damp and cold, me included, and going on deck in the rain was definitely not a highlight. The motion on deck and below was atrocious, rolling and hobby horsing, anything not tied down rattling and clanging. Once everything was secured I retired below to curl up under the sea rug with Bob Cat who didn't seem too perturbed by my dampness, I was grateful for this little ball of warmth to help thaw me out.
At 3.30 am I stuck my head out of the companionway, our motion had eased, the rain had stopped, the good old Australian flag was standing out steady on the backstay, a good indication we had enough breeze to make sail, which we duly did. The wind was on the nose but with everything sheeted in firm we were still on the lay line for Halifax.
Now the wind has backed a little which has allowed me to ease sheets and Sylph is doing a very comfortable six knots to windward. So all in all we still managed to put in a respectable 99 miles for the day. Halifax is 120 miles away, the forecast is for it to go light tonight so I expect we will be arriving there sometime Wednesday.
All is well.
Bob Cat:
Us tough old sea cats, a bit of dampness never hurt anyone, just as long as you leave me below to stay dry and warm skipper Bob can get as wet as he likes. Though I wish he'd dry off a little better before taking over the bunk.
The food is still atrocious. He tried to serve me some mush out of a can today, if it isn't hard tack its gruel.
Still if I stay warm, and conserve energy we can get by until something decent turns up. With this in mind, Zzzzzzz