wed 29th November N 012:13;04 W 056:38;32
Tikka
Wed 29 Nov 2017 13:14
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N 012:23;273 W 054:45;993
DF Day 72 on the big blubber booat,So after days and
days of little or no wind we headed south and finally picked up some
breeze....hooray......Monday brought a day of great sailing and some pretty big
squalls along with some wet stuff falling from the sky that we haven't seen
for three weeks!! Into the evening and I got up at 11.00 hrs for my shift
to find ahead of us a beautiful moon lit ocean and about 15-20 knots of
wind....however astern of us the sky was full of black menacing clouds
charging along at 30-40 knots, within half an hour the wind began to build
15-20-25-30 knots with the biggest gust around 36knts sending Tikka screwing off
down the 4m waves at a fantastic (if not butt clenching) 10 knts. After 45
mins of the roller coaster the squall finally passed over us and we
continued enjoying 15-20 knots over the decks, 01.30 hrs handed over to MF and
tried to get some kip (no chance).
So on another note,
Drought Sunday had arrived with the wine, rum and beer finally
running out, as the day went on The Intoxicated Three DF/MB/TB started to
sweat and fidget a lot , it took them a day to realize that there was the
option of some dodgy whiskey in the drinks cabinet, that lasted till
Tuesday afternoon so it was back to sweating and fidgeting. MB did comment that
he'd never drunk so much bl##dy water in his life.
We're under 300 miles from land now so I'm sure
they'll make it (although I did see MB eyeing up some antifreeze this
afternoon).
TB DF decided to have a hair cut today. Tramlines , a
dodgy mustache and one eyebrow all seem a bit strange still after day 72 on the
booat but maybe understandable. Nice to have some great sailing at speed
yesterday although things have calmed down a lot. Have to run the generator
in the mornings to run up the battery so today and yesterday saw a morning
matinee watching Charlie Angels- nobody can say that we have not
continued to enjoy the cultural high end films. Film night to continue in the
man cave at home! Anyway have to attend to the corn beef hash and handover to
someone else. FB says I still do not follow his instructions - ho hum
 DF had secret stash of Coca-Cola in his
bunk - better than anti freeze !Looks like 1st December into Barbados so looking
into changing flights from St Lucia to Barbados to be back in UK 3rd/4th !40
degrees to- 6  MB A great days sailing yesterday. Made lots of ground.
A strange occurrence last night as we sat in the cockpit enjoying yet another
feast courtesy of Fabrizio. We were charging along at about 8 knots with a 20
knot following breeze and big swell, the sun had set and the glow in the sky was
fading, when everyone sat bolt upright and stared into the
forward gloom. We'd all heard the very distinctive 'ting' of a bell on a
buoy. If you ever been stuck out in the Solent in a fog, you'll know the sound.
It says 'I'm big and made of metal, and I'm gonna put a big hole in you..' Tim
was quick to the chart to check if anything could possibly be near us, and the
search light came and combed the waters infront of us. 'Ting' there it was
again. 'What the f*!k is it?'. We couldn't see a thing. 'Ting' again. 'Turn the
music down and listen real careful' someone said. Silence descended and five
relatively worried sets of ears were twitching. Nothing. Silence. Where is it.
Silence.
After about five minutes we realized that they had
overdubbed the bell sound onto the reggae track we were listening
to.
There may not be any booze left on board, but we can
still put on a pretty good impersonation of a bunch of p*ss heads.
MF Yep its been A different
crossing no wind frustrating!! but a good crew all keeping busy and its been
interesting watching each and all starting to get in the
groove although film club seems to have gone from evening club to morning
matinee Mon morning charlies angels, Tues morning charlies angels followed
by Guy Martin Speed!!
But i will say after a month on board Tikka the sail
change today sorted pronto !!.
we can smell land 186m to
go.
FG good team work this morning on change of sail , from
twin head set on 257 degrees with 20kt plus wind behind us, to three white
sail set on direct course to north Barbados at 310 degrees
180 ish NM to go , at the moment averaging 8kt so
all going hunky dory !!!! still managed to knock up a poor fisherman
Moroccan style cus cus .......
Barbados here we come ....late lunch on Thursday
30.11.2017 ...miss you all see you soon . over and out
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