Ghosting along!
ULA
John & Jackie Richards
Tue 25 Nov 2008 11:59
|
We are settling into our watch system
and getting used to life on board. Yesterday we had quite decent wind until late
afternoon when it all started to die down and we were at times struggling to
fill the spinnaker due to lack of wind and a swell. We enjoyed some smoked
salmon sandwiches for lunch and a spag bol/fruit salad for tea, making the most
of everything fresh at the moment until we have to resort to the tins/long life
and the crew enjoyed a red wine sundowner as we ghosted along in light
winds.
We had a VHF call from another ARC boat, Emerald,
asking advice on which wine would be best with their caviar!! Lol!
Another crew bored with the lack of wind!
The so-called 'Red Watch' of Adrian, Andrew and
myself, as opposed to the 'Blue Watch' of John, Andy and Howard have
rechristened themselves the 'Bat Watch' on the basis we are all as blind as bats
without our contact lenses/specs and struggle to work out other boats lights at
a distance! Whose idea was it to put all the blind people on the same watch we
ask ourselves??
We managed to fly the spinnaker rather
unsatisfactorily until 3.30am when the Bat Watch decided enough was enough and
took it down. We were fed up with our 'Boat I-spy, Country names for each
letter of the alphabet and had eaten the watch chocolate bar ration by then so
some action was required. It went up again around 7.30am when a bit more wind
filled in. We could see several other ARC boats around us within 5 miles or so
in the night so this morning around 10.30am we did an 'All Ships' on the
VHF to see who was around us and had quite a few calls back.
Everyone was bemoaning the current lack of wind and had had similar nights to
us.All seem to be making around 4-5 knots
with various combinations of headsails and spinnakers in broadly the right
direction.
Life on board is quite pleasanr at the moment. Andy
has got over his initial seasickness, Howard is playing with his sextant
(managed a position this morning within 13 miles, so very pleased), Adrian is
fishing and Andrew's liver is starting to recuperate! Howard has been christened
Rip Van Winkle for sleeping through the start of his 4am watch (too much playing
with his sextant) although he has redeemed himself with some fantastic bacon,
egg and mushroom sandwiches for us all at the watch changeover at 8am. Adrian is
trying out the new fishing gear and expectations are high for a 'sushi' lunch -
or maybe dinner tomorrow!
I have put some 'Resistance Bands' on board so we
can all keep fit while sailing.Andrew is now practising and hopes to have pecs
like Daniel Craig by the end of the trip.
Love to all at home, Jackie
|