32.24:63N 060.11:17W
Tioram 4
Tina & Tony
Sun 16 May 2010 16:25
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Date 16 May Time 11:49 boat time
Hello from Tioram
More to talk about today. Yesterday afternoon we
finally motored out of the calm and the westerly wind filled in a little later
than expected. We put up the cruising chute and set off towards the Azores at a
good pace. The wind was fairly gentle but after a couple of hours the halyard
parted at the top of the mast and the chute went into the water. Quick
action from the crew managed to recover the cruising chute with no damage
and a quick trip to the top of the mast by the skipper reeved another halyard.
All done in double quick time. By that time it was getting late and we decided
to sail on main and poled out genoa through the night. This morning we are still
at it and going well in broadly the right direction. The reason for halyard
failure was just old age and wear ovr the masthead block. We are checking other
halyards this morning.
Life on board is not too bad at the moment with the
skipper doing his sun sights and others reading and listening to ipods. We are
still eating fresh stuff and the frozen meat is looking good for another 3 days.
We just got a contact on the AIS ( a neat bit of
kit that tells us other ships are around and who they are) from Sea Traveller a
150 ft motor yacht who was going to pass close by. A chat with the
friendly Aussie skipper alerted them to our position who has moved to motor
around us.
James is now practicing his astro nav and Malte his
steering. Skipper is looking hapier as the gennie is ploncking and the water
maker purring, filling up those tanks exhausted by all that laundry. John has
been regailing the crew with stories that on his boat everyone has to wash in 2
litres per day.
Our weather routing is now getting important as we
are over a third of the way and need to make sur we pick up wind but not to
much.
The Ula award for the day is no contest. It has to
go to the skipper for going up the mast at sea.
Cheers from Tioram
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