North Atlantic Crossing - Day 2
The Talulah's Web Diary
Ali Pery / Shane Warriker
Mon 17 May 2010 13:38
On Saturday 15th, after checking out with customs and immigration, we made a
short hop up the east coast of Antigua to Deep Bay, where we dropped anchor
and spent a few hours scrubbing the bottom of the boat again. Fully laden
with water, fuel and provisions, we need as clean a bottom as possible to
get the extra speed. With heavy gusts on the nose, we decided to stay at
anchor overnight and set off the following morning.
So yesterday, Sunday 16th, we set off at 10.30 am local time (1430UTC)
straight into the heavy north Atlantic seas. We have had winds of between
25 – 35 knots, hitting quite a few squalls, most of the day and night, and
very lumpy seas, making for quite an uncomfortable start … but hey, with
reefed sails and a bit of tweaking, we managed to set up the self-steering
windvane, locking the helm, and have been running at an average of 6 knots
on a close reach. We are making the most of the easterly winds and taking a
northerly course for now.
And Jon caught a fish within our first hour of setting off! A Spanish
Mackerel which has fed the 3 of us some delicious sashimi and fried fillets!
So all well aboard Talulah, despite being thrown around like a sock in a
washing-machine!