Wednesday 29 November 2023
The Adventures of Tin Man
Andy Topp & Steve Arnold
Wed 29 Nov 2023 21:50
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14:3.85N
034:6.01W What three words : veneer.freehand.nexus
Things continue to get a little more interesting out
here in the mid Atlantic. We are now in what would appear to be squall
territory. Overnight we had a couple of relatively minor rain clouds to deal
with which had all pretty much cleared up by the time I watched the sun rise at
around 7 boat time whilst I listened to an audio book (The last list of Mabel
Beaumont by my very good old friend, Laura Pearson, which I am absolutely
loving). I mentioned the other day in the blog that the squalls come from behind
us as we are going downwind. What is interesting though is that they tend to
form in a line. We have been mostly quite lucky as the lines have been off to
one side, or the other, or both, leaving us relatively ok in the middle.
This morning was hot - the temperature has really got up
and it is now quite humid. The hot morning gave way to a cloudy and unsettled
afternoon and we had some proper rain - the first the boat has really seen since
leaving the UK. It was actually refreshing and gave Tin Man a good rinse down
which was very needed - the Saharan dust up to now creating a yellowish dirty
sort of look on deck.
We decided that cocktail hour this evening, for which we
had planned Daquiris, had to change to Dark and Stormys to match the mood. The
entire bottle of pre-made negorini having been consumed yesterday proving that
making negroni a more accessible drink may not have been the best idea.
The changing weather conditions have meant that the
relative calm, low wind we have had for the last few days has gone and we are
now storming along at around 7-8 knots which will hopefully help us creep back
some of the time lost yesterday. We are still aiming for a 9 December arrival in
St Lucia so this makes today roughly the mid point from a timing perspective, so
we decided to do some maintenance checks. We checked the auto pilot mechanism,
cut the worn end off the main sail halyard which hoists it up to avoid the
chance of that snapping from overuse, and did some engine checks. We do have a
small but growing number of things which we need to get sorted when we get to St
Lucia but nothing hopefully too major at this point.
Two noticable things about our current location - the
water temperature we are recording twice a day for SeaLabs is now over 28
degrees which just feels really unexpected for where we are. Secondly we have
noticed that the night time radio chat has completely disappeared. No longer is
there endless banter from bored fishermen and tanker or container ship mariners
- we are starting to feel much more alone out here; we haven't seen a boat on
our electronic charts for a couple of days and we haven't seen one with our eyes
for longer.
This morning Jooj set a challenge - to write some lyrics
for a country and western song about the fact that we are now in Squall Country.
After my afternoon nap I took up this challenge. Imagine the following in a
cheesy country and western style:
I got the wind in my sails
I got the sheets in my hands I got the bow facing west I got my back to the land There's nowhere I'd rather be, on this boat; Tin Man, and me We're heading over the seas out into squall country I'm riding big waves
short sails and north easterlys I've got my cold beers and sangrias and batch negroni I got my friends riding with me on this watery plain We're not afraid of no squalls we'd do it all again Cos we're in squa-aaal country
no place for the weak Don't go to squa-aaal country if you don't want to shriek 'cos out in squa-aaal country that's were you'll find me I'm out in squa-aaal country this boat; Tin Man, and me. |