18:51.88N 30:59.35W
Tioram 4
Tina & Tony
Sun 29 Nov 2009 14:25
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Sunday 29th November, 10:00
Unfortunately yesterdays blog didn't make the print
deadline due to an eventful morning, so will try and recap what's been happening
for the past 2 days as you've probably been waiting with baited
breath!!
We've been making really good progress and since
Friday morning have covered another 350 miles upto this morning, above our
planned average for the now more realistic 19-20 day crossing and the
chartplotter shows that we're in the middle (not of our crossing, but between
the coast of western Africa and south America).
Saturday morning saw the wind and seas steady
enough for us to launch the kite (aka the spinnaker or the big colourful one
that flies off the front!), only the second time T&T had had it out. It was
an impressive sight when the Tioram logo finally unfurled in the breeze and we
were soon surfing down the rollers and averaging 10+ knots, with Mike and Al
helming they even hit 11.5 at times. After about an hour we had some rogue waves
come through that sent us into some violent rolls, easy enough to cope with but
they did cause the kite to collapse and wrap for a second around the forestay.
Everything seemed ok as we surfed down another wave, but we noticed a small
tear developing in the top third, so the call was made to bring it down! Quite
impressively Pat, Moira and Tony were soon on deck, in various states of undress
having only 30 minutes before gone off watch, and the snuffler was down and the
sail back in the locker in no time. The fun and games to repair the sail will
begin in earnest later today with Pat and Tony volunteering to play the
parachute game in the saloon later today (sunday).
Lunch was another gourmet affair from Moira and Pat
(Carol, did you know he could cook so well!!) with fajitas and salad, that set
us up for the afternoon and had us all deciding that dinner was unnecessary!
This plan had to be torn up around 5ish, when we heard the cries of "Fish
On!!!". Up on deck, our gourmet chefs had turned into sports fishermen and had
hooked a nice sized dorado! I will leave out the bloody details, but
Tony (aka Clubber Bate) like a scene out of the Flintstones did the deed,
and our resident fishmonger, Mike, had it filleted in no time at all. With this
freshly acquired meal, we felt that this couldn't be wasted and the galley came
into action just to whip up a light thai red curry....from hooking to the plate
in about an hour! By the end of this trip, we will have a book of recipes for
the next time you find yourself cooking at 45deg or in a following sea; when one
minute you're by the cooker trying to balance a pot of boiling water, using a
sharf knife and bracing yourself and the next you're sliding 10ft across the
other side of the cabin, I'd like to see Gordon Ramsey or Jamie Oliver try their
hand at this!!!!
Saturday night was a quiet affair with no
traffic on the radar and we continued to head west under full main and
poled out gennie for most of the night. As the sun rose to start another warm
and cloudless day, we gyped to take us from a course that was taking us up
towards Maine to one more in the right direction of Venezuela (close
enough!!).
Anyway, the call has just been made to get the kite
up and back into the saloon to start the repair, so I'd better leave the nav
station or I may not get out of here today!
Love to all at home.
Al, Moira, Mike, Tina, Tony, Pat.
PS. Sorry for no photos, we're having a few
problems with the file size and the connection speeds. We'll try and fix this
shortly.
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