37:01N 16:19W Oh What a Night!
The Snark on The ARC
Ben Little
Wed 1 Jun 2011 09:35
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Hi there folks,
By far the toughest night on watch so far.
The wind has been blowing consistently strongly, well consistently is perhaps
the wrong word. It has been between 15 and 20 Knots with dead patches or
10-12 for 15 mins at a time when you want to shake out the reefs. But then
back with a vengence, all of it on the nose blowing us south of the rhumb line,
thankfully around 2am it came round and now we are able to make course and
mostly around 7.5 or 8 Knots (actually 8.5 now and holding). It is far
from comfortable and the night was very black and the weather is still
overcast.
Now day is with us and the boat is asleep with me
on watch hoping that someone will wake up in the next hour so I can have a lie
down instead. Things have calmed down a bit and George is coping well (not
the case last night). I may be able to cook something up for lunch without
scalding myself. The ever reliable gribs are saying that things will calm
down by nightfall, timing may be bit off but I am glad we will see it easing
within 24 hours. I have had another couple of falls in the night and Mike
as well. The chair I am sitting is tied down now so not going
anywhere, however I still have bruises on back arms shoulders and ribs and could
do without another. I think tonight is courtesy shower night so less wind
would make it easier.
We now have less than 500 miles to go and the 7 day
passage is looking like a good bet. The arrival sweepstake I think will be
set today with times either side of 15:30 GMT Saturday (exactly 7 days).
Getting closer!
One thing I am less than ecstatic about is the
re-appearance of the Portuguese man-o-war. These little purple jelly fish
are really taking over the planet, or at least the watery part of it. Has
this been widely reported in the media? Being so isolated from newspapers
television or broadcasts of any kind (save the weather) it seems entirely
possible that a plague of jelly fish is in fact appearing everywhere and taking
over the planet. This particular swarm are clearly the young offspring,
more like a disk than a fully inflated adult and they keep being swept onto the
deck, perhaps this is not surprising as we are nearing the coast of
Portugal. Is this normal? (any insights welcomed).
signing off for now
Ben and the Crew of The Snark
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