Ticketeeboo - Another word for torturous? 21:21 N 34:00 W

Another word for torturous? 21:21 N 34:00 W

Ticketeeboo

Sue & Alan

Thu 9 Jan 2014 14:15

We continue to make good, if not modest progress. There is a big swell, at least 4-5m from the north and therefore just aft of our beam, which we mostly ride over every 10 seconds or so. Combined with this, the wind is making additional waves, typically 2m or so, which we take on our port quarter. For some of the time Ticketeeboo is remarkably well settled and for the rest it's torturous and sudden movements cannot be predicted! Great care must be taken when needing to move round the boat. Exercise is plentiful because there is a constant need to adopt posture to changes and shaking. Seemingly agitating is most significant when our wind speed reduces because we have less momentum to drive on through the sea and maintain good speed - less than 6kn. Fortunately our direction over ground towards Barbados is good and we are heading with slight southerly aspect to help stay in best available winds, which are slowly reducing for time being.
Needing to keep things simple, we had toasted butty (a la Sue) + last two bananas (cooked in toffee source to perfection) at mid-day yesterday and thought we were going to have one of Rays (defrosted and reheated) prepared casseroles (with rice) for evening meal. When the time approached we changed our mind about the rice because we thought it's a good idea to use up more of our spuds before they start walking round under the boards by themselves (growing legs now). Also, Ray's scrummy prepared casserole is another one of my 'accidents waiting to happen' spag-bol (like the day's before). We managed really well, taking great care, making use of pressure cooker (for spuds) and microwave (spag-bol). The incessant rock & roll accompanied by shakin' all over had an evil plan though. We gave out some expletives when some spag-bol (under our strict control) partly migrated into bottom the microwave and the spuds needed handballing into our food bowls after I failed to get them in a controll
ed free-fall and they landed in our dump-sink instead. After this, we were even more careful than exceptionally careful. I went in the cockpit and Ray passes the two bowls of food, one at time through the window hatch and I kept them safe while Ray came up and sat down opposite. We now have our bowl of spag-bol + boiled (legless) spuds to enjoy. Whilst congratulating each other the swell & wind waves unexpectedly combined forces (again) at the vital moment. Like previous nights, this spag-bol is a mean weapon which defies laundry detergents. Ray, being the sacrificial lamb on the lee-side, made it very difficult for him to keep his bowl of spag-bol under control at the vital moment. It plopped once, he commented (bit sharp under the circumstances) and for an instant we both thought Ray had regained the upper hand again. Not to be, the kick-back was a real nasty one and as Ray's upper torso wobbled back just slightly as the spag-bol came out his way (down-hill at that moment in the r
olling). Ray's instinctive reaction saved the day though (and most of his spag-bol) because he used his fingers to get at least 90% of it back into his bowl. The remainder captured by the open weave holes on our non-slip table mats, which act like a filter in these circumstances! Neither of us wasted any and both of us are fit and healthy 12 hours after! We also enjoyed an ice cream before cleaning up the mess. All done and back to our imaginative normality.
We each managed to hit the sack for an hour or so during yesterday afternoon and Ray, very kindly did an hour longer this morning. Being shaken about so much is very tiring and rest is essential. We have also passed through 30ºW so flogged clocks another hour. Now 2 hours 'behind' UK so our boat time remains corresponding to sunrise & sunset. Not flogging clocks every 15º would need us to do it 'on arrival' and sunrise/sunset would be at unfamiliar times. We've recently moved some stores about. We have plentiful orange juice and 6 litre milk. Not found any more cereal yet though. Banana all gone although plenty tangerines plumbs and couple of apples. Lemons sliced and in freezer, strictly for G&T's! We have good appetites and eat well, though be it our meals not always as per the agreed schedule they are very tasty, specially when we can jeep them on the plates successfully. We have mostly sunshine and outside temp is typically no less than 22ºC (night) and up to 27ºC (day). This mor
ning I can see we can expect a little rain. possibly squally so we will be keeping watchful eyeball incase squally give us some shitty winds? (as they can). No washing needs doing today then so the chinese laundry drying is avoided for today. As I type, it's 0640, wind is strengthening (a little) and we're speeding along 7 - 8 kn. This is lovely because at this speed Ticketeeboo moves gracefully, escaping the nasty grasp of the combining swell and surface waves and we can appreciate more comfort. Happy days are here again dah de dah de dah, da de dah de dah........
1200: Just done log update and remembering this was a 25 hour day (flogged clock) we now have:
Barbados as the crow flies is 1551NM so our distance covered noon-noon is 140NM during which time we sailed for 169NM on the log. Also..... we have now completed 40% of our passage as well. (one catamaran & 2 ships spotted by eyeball/AIS/radar since departing Tenerife)
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Ticketeeboo MMSI 235071989 Callsign 2CED3, Ham = m0hng
At 09/01/2014 14:07 (utc) our position was 21°21.23'N 034°00.43'W
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