15:35.3N 51:59.9W December 5th Slow progress with Squalls
The Snark on The ARC
Ben Little
Sat 5 Dec 2009 23:03
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Hi Folks,
I get the first watch tonight and it will be a
struggle to stay awake after a very hearty supper of sausages, mash, and cabbage
with bacon and onions. Not really tropical food but all the constituents
can be kept for 2 weeks at sea, and it made a nice meal for 3 homesick
sailors. The potatoes were cooked in sea water, a suggestion from the
cruising guides, they worked very well perfect taste without any seasoning
afterwards. Dugald has stoically continued the fruit turning
watch for the past 2 weeks but has finally concluded that wrapping lemons in tin
foil is just a waste of tin foil. We also seem to have severely over
catered for lemons and limes. Dugald even went so far as to make some
lemonade today, it was great but I think a little labour
intensive, especially since we don't have lemon juicer (note to self,
also get better cork screw and new potato peeler). Having ploughed through
most of the fresh goods we are left with a quite impressive supply of dry goods
which can serve as the basis for our next sailing trip if we don't get through
it before we leave St Lucia.
Tomorrow will mark 2 weeks at sea and we are really
counting down to St Lucia now. We have 525 miles to go which would sound
like a lot but it is just a few more days at sea. Today was another one
with mostly lighter winds and us struggling to keep our average pace up. It
looks like we will have good wind from now on in though. In fact though I
complain of slack winds we have had constant wind every day and there has not
been any time that we would have needed to think about putting the engine on to
make progress. The only engine time we have logged so far was to charge
the batteries (not in gear) when the generator was off line and 20 minutes
(motoring in the wrong direction) when we wrapped the Spinnaker around the
forestay. Dugald has been writing comments in the log about skipper not
happy with the wind and speed etc, it is very true, I am keen now after 2 weeks
at sea to get to the other end, and also keen to get there before the other
Hanse 470's who we have been ahead of all the way. I would also like to
get there ahead of a few other boats we have been sailing near but that will
depend on the wind they have had the past 24 hours or so. I also want to
get in in less than the 17 days that we notionally set as our target. Not
having saved the Spinnaker for the light winds was an error but it was fun while
it lasted. At least we can say we did not use the engine (except where
dictated by safety)
Today we did have some wind in patches, we had
perhaps some proper Atlantic Squalls this time though we we quite grateful for
the wind they brought which was only around 20-22 knots and only for 30 mins or
so but nice to be zipping along for a change. The wind seems to be back
now though and from a more friendly direction we have up to 20 knots with boat
speed of almost 8 right now. Not the fastest speeds perhaps we have
had but still a great improvement on past 2 or 3 days. Some heavy chanting
by the Wind Witch seems to have paid dividends at last.
Apart from a lot of reading and a lot of gybes to
try and get the best of the wind today was very quiet, no fish committing
suicide in time for our supper (although we had left over tuna from yesterday
for lunch), no whales, no dolphins, no turtles and no swimming. Just sun
bathing and relaxing. Unfortunately due to a malfunction of the ice maker
(to much or not enough water (user error) we did not have ice for the rum punch
attempt, perhaps tomorrow. I was hoping that my trusty Iphone would
provide a recipe but no it will have to be pure inspiration, hopefully without
the perspiration. Also just as the Scottish navy was squaring up the the
Royal Navy for this afternoons battle ships tourney, a squall came through and
we were concentrating on closing windows etc and got side tracked.
I fear less sleep tonight due to more speed, well
you can't have everything.
I'm off now to look at the night sky which is truly
amazing here, very like Boracay on a cloudless night. Milo and I can have
a look with his telescope next time as I have some new star gazing tools which
will help us to find the constellations.
More chat tomorrow.
Ben
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