Talulah's Log - a pleasant penultimate day - so far!
Talulah's Web Diary
Paul & Anette Morris
Sat 16 Dec 2006 20:38
position "14:30.865N 57:23.301W"
Saturday
16th December
2006
After a quiet night in which we both saw the lights of both passing
ships, and of a yacht or two, we both saw dawn in with sausage and
beans!! Following breakfast the usual sail changes went on until we
were satisfied. Somehow we always seem to be sailing on a point of
sail that we can't just manage with a catamaran. And that is sailing
dead down wind, with just your main and jib up. The shrouds on
Talulah stretch too far back to allow us to push the mainsail out too
far. So tacking down wind is the only way for us to do it - now that
we haven't got the spinnaker that is!
The
day has been spent avoiding squalls, and we have heard on the net that some
yachts experienced winds of 40 knots plus in the squalls. So far
we've experienced only the rain and a little more wind - however the rest of the
day and night is yet to come! We also experienced another equipment
failure last night, and that was our mains battery charger. However,
I do have another and I'll fit that when we arrive in St Lucia.
Meanwhile the twin diesel engines will have to charge the batteries - they
probably do a better job anyway, with two 50 amp generators!
We've still got a half tank of water left, about 400 litres, and enough
diesel to motor the rest of the way if we need to. But we
won't. Anette still has enough food for a return trip.
But we won't do that either -for a while anyway.....and next time we'll take a
route that has more wind on the beam!
Sailing double handed has been an experience for us.
We think that the watch-keeping system we have works and is good for
us. Our days and nights have passed in fairly good humour, and the
regimen that we adopted, such as 'clipping on' and wearing life-jackets when
only one of us is on deck, and at night, has been worth it. We have
not 'rushed' or raced to do anything, the boat has always taken priority, and
the pace of life has been moderate. We seem to sleep our "instant"
tiredness off, but after almost 20 days at sea, we're starting to feel
a little weary - and we're down to our last 4 cans of beer!
We're hoping that we will arrive in Rodney Bay, St Lucia in the early hours of
Monday morning, all things being
equal........