You can never tell in the Trades
ULA
John & Jackie Richards
Tue 9 Dec 2008 14:30
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Position 016:00.444N 048:34.605W
Good morning Ula fans. Here is the 6th mate
blogging from a sunny and warm position just under 712 miles to go and over
2100 under our keel.
I can't help thinking our 2900 mile sea voyage
seems to have some similarities to running a marathon.
Just like a running marathon there is a lot of
careful preparation before the start. The vast majority of this has fallen
on the skipper as this voyage has involved a 2 year planning effort. The
boat and its gear have been tried and tested ahead of the event. Ula is
standing up well to the demands of a long ocean passage. No major gear failures
occurred but the amount of chaffe (wear) which can occur on rigging lines
is a big learning point.Then we come to
the sailing crew who have all needed some preparation. Just like running a
marathon you can only go so far with this because the reality of what it feels
like to do all that distance is never reached during the run up training.
Ula's crew come from diverse backgrounds and bring different skills (or lack of
them in some cases) to the boat. While we have not yet (and may never) receive
the recognition from our skipper of being a well honed crew, a rare
compliment was handed out to Andrew (our social secretary) on the improvement of
his helming.
Finally, the is the experience which all marathon
runners know of coming up against 'The Wall' - a kind of physical and
psychological barrier which threatens to stop you somewhere after halfway
into the event (with one difference for a boat in mid Atlantic as there is
no question of retiring). What was the equivalent of 'The Wall' for the
crew of Ula. Well imagine you are running a marathon and someone directs a 50
mph high pressure water hose across the course for a couple of hours. This
is what happens when you are engulfed in an intense tropical squall line.
Imagine you would feel when running a marathon if the road you were
running on were to suddenly start moving backwards for 2 hours at the same speed
you are running forwards so you are not moving forward at all. This is what
happens when you are caught in a strong 3 knot surface current when you can only
sail at 3 knots in light winds.
But we seem to be over the wall now and just
need to have that mentality to keep plodding on steadily towards the
finish.
Yesterday we had our best daily run of 172 miles
helped by a steady NE wind which had us zooming along through the day and night
at 7+ knots.
Crew morale is very high, no doubt helped by the amazing high standard of
meals served up to the crew under Jackie's mastery in planning and running of
galley activities (as well as sailing the boat).
Even our self confessed 'Captain Grumpy' has started to look a lot more
relaxed and happy in the last few days. This could be something to do with those
mysterious GRIB files. Looking over his shoulder when he is spending hours on
the computer you can see that what used to be weak looking arrows pointing every
which way over the chart have now been replaced by strong, bold, bright coloured
and purposeful looking arrows all neatly lined up and pointing in an east to
weat direction - the TRADE WINDS at last. With these come the prospect of
150-180 mile per day runs which us sailors start to get excited about.
One of the ship's company, who will remain nameless, is no doubt trying to
get the 6th mate certified mad and immediately removed from the vessel at or
even before arrival in St Lucia by putting around the rumour that he is wearing
his sun hat during the night watch to protect himself from the effects of
'moonshine'. I have never heard of anything so ridiculous and will have to
think of a suitable riposte in a furure blog.
I am sorry to disappoint any 'friends of fish' among you (most notably
those shore based members of my own family who would rather see fish in the
ocean than on a plate) but it looks like Adrian's fishery operations are about
to resume with the arrival of a piece of bait in the form of a flying fish
which landed on the deck last night. The rather too frail fishing line which
allowed the 'big one' to get away has been replaced with something which looks
like it could hold a 100 lb tuna. I don't think I want to be around when this is
reeled in !
Howard |