Friday 25 August 2023, 19:30
The Adventures of Tin Man
Andy Topp & Steve Arnold
Fri 25 Aug 2023 18:33
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30:33.10N
14:07.36W
what three words - jubilant.uncaged.lashes
We are now nearly 100 hours into this latest leg - since
we left Cascais on Monday. This has been the longest leg of the trip so far
which would have been much longer had we not had to do a refuel. It's certainly
now the longest we have continuously slept at sea whilst underway after we left
A Coruna last Saturday morning. Safe to say we are now all nicely into a
routine, albeit sometimes that routine is a bit punishing (I'm on the 2am to 6am
shift again tonight!!).
Again from a sailing perspective it's been reasonably
uneventful. On Wednesday evening when halling the main sail up, the pin in the
shackle which holds the rope that pulls the main sail up the mast, worked loose
and opened (but thankfully stayed in the shackle). The result of this was that
the main sail fell back down and the end of the line pulling it up shot up to
the top of the mast. There is no way to get that back down unless someone straps
into a harness and is hoisted up the mast to grab it. I've done this a couple of
times - it's not that pleasant - but each time has been whilst the boat has been
stationary, the sun shining, and no wind. We managed without the main sail
yesterday as the sea state was way too swelly making the pitch of the mast swing
about 30 degrees at the top - not great when you're up there. This morning,
however, it was Glenn to the rescue (again) and as we tied as many lines to him
as possible and hoisted him up the mast I was very very grateful it was not me.
Not all heros wear capes - Glenn has definitely been our hero this last two
weeks. Even now I just glanced up to see him sat in the sail bag putting some
wire on the shackle so it doesn't happen again. The man is
insatiable.
Aside from that it has been another day of trying to fix
various things or investigate things. the water maker which desalinates sea
water as not functioned properly this entire trip. Every time we identify one
problem we find two more and today has been no exception. We have managed to
find work arounds but this will be a key focus for the trans atlantic, ensuring
it is tip top and working properly.
We have decided to crack open a bottle of Hattingley
english sparkling wine this evening. The clouds are ruining sunset so we though
the wine would be a good substitute. Hattingley is the winery that Will is the
cellar master for following his recent graduation from a degree in Oenology and
Viticulture - somewhat of a career change from his accountancy past. I like any
wine iwth bubbles in it so I'm not sure I'm an authority on these things but I
did think it was very nice.
After several days of isolation Sam saw another boat
today. This may seem like a reasonably mundane thing to report but it is
literally the only other thing we have seen apart from ocean and each other for
some time. The Canary islands are now showing on our chart plotter and are
within 200 miles (189 at time of writing). Depending on our speed (and even half
a knot can make a massive difference on arrival times) we are due to arrive
sometime during the night on Saturday night. We are all looking forward to
arriving, apart from Sam who is willing us to go either much faster or much
slower, as our current arrival time is slap bang in the middle of his first full
eight hour over night rest of this new watch system. Sorry, Sam. But at least we
will be there!
After these last two weeks we have all learned so much.
Andy and I especially, but we have seen Sam and WIll gain so much in confidence
too. We won't have Glenn but we are now proper ocean sailors and together with
our fifth crew member, Jooj, who will be joining us in Gran Canaria in November,
the Atlantic crossing seems a lot less daunting than it used to.
The engine has just gone off, the sails are up and we
are flying along at 9 knotts. Time to send this blog post and do soem sailing.
1,465 miles down, 189 to go.
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