Ketch-up
W2N 'Where to Next?'
Rob 'Bee' Clark
Sat 22 Nov 2008 20:31
|
19:00.0N 23:24.2W
This leg from La Palma to the Cape Verde Islands
seems to be taking forever. It's the longest single passage yet at 812Nm and as
I write, I've got another 156Nm to go. It doesn't sound much but it's another
full day so assuming this breeze holds up tomorrow, I should be arriving late on
Sunday evening. I've made fantastic progress today though and have consistently
been making a comfortable 7.5 - 8 knots with the wind over the beam - lovely.
I've been at sea for five days now on this leg and
most of it has been pretty exhilarating sailing. Until last night, I hadn't seen
another boat. The wind was light yesterday (and very warm) and I could see that
a boat was gaining on me as I was bobbing around enjoying the sunshine. She
passed me early this morning in darkness but as the sun rose, I noticed that she
seemed to be waiting for me. As I got close, with the wind now picking up, she
unfurled her genoa and has been very evenly matched all day although her course
has taken her a couple of miles further west. Then, earlier this evening I
caught up with another ketch that is now about one mile off to the east of me
and seems to be heading the same way. It's great to have company after nearly a
week of absolutely nothing in any direction but neither boat is responding to
the VHF radio. Oh, sorry about the subject line... 'ketch-up'. I caught up a
ketch... no? oh ok, never mind.
So, there's not really much to report I'm afraid.
Oh, yesterday was hot - very hot. And today would have been too if it hadn't
been so windy. By midday yesterday I ran out of places to clip my MP3 player and
I'm still 16 degrees from the equator! That's about 960Nm I think so it's going
to get a lot hotter yet.
I'm getting very bored too. I had enough books for
this leg but I have had to ration the Sudoku. I'm going to see if I can find a
travel chess game or something like that as I'm going out of my mind with
boredom. The nights aren't so bad as I've managed to settle into a sort of
routine but in these downwind conditions, I must admit that the autohelm is
actually much better than me at steering a straight course and so I've not
really got much to do except read, update the logbook occasionally, cook and
make the odd sail adjustment. It'll all change when I get into the southern
Atlantic as the wind and current will be against me along the African coast. I
could of course take a wide route west into the Atlantic just as the Vendee
Globe boats have just done but that will be a decision for the dice. Either way,
it's going to start getting difficult and despite all my whining about downwind
sailing, I think I'm going to be eating my words in a month or two. I've got a
few things to sort out when I get to the Verde's so I may stick around for a
while. Basically, it's nothing serious but I want to get some paperwork and mail
sent out to me and maybe buy a few things for Canasta. That is of
course assuming that there is a ship's chandlery on one of the islands! If not,
then a pilot book of the African coast might be one of the things I have to hang
around to take delivery of.
And guitar strings... Every string on my guitar has
rusted and snapped when the case got wet on an earlier leg. I'll have to find
some way of keeping it very dry as I've missed being able to play it and I can't
even offend anyone with my singing out here!
I saw more dolphins a few days ago - loads of them.
They are fascinating creatures. They leap out of the water and dart around
twisting and turning in the bow-wave with an
astonishingly effortless agility in a way that can only be showing off
or just having fun. It's as if they've only just realised they can
swim!
Earlier this evening I saw loads of flying fish as
well. They're odd too. I was standing up in the cockpit watching the ketch on my
port side when suddenly, from out of the water flew hundreds of little tiny
torpedoes. Some went skimming across the surface to the left and the others to
the right as they must have been disturbed by this huge mouthless fish looming
amongst them.
I'll write again when I get to the Verde's. I think
I mentioned that I can't go directly to Sao Nicolau as I've got to clear customs
first at one of three main islands. I'll probably head for Sao Vincente as it's
a short hop then to sao Nicolau but if it hasn't got a ship's chandlery, I may
have to go snooping around a bit. I'm looking forward to it though. It sounds
beautiful and I'm told the people are friendly.
Enjoy what's left of your weekend and I'll catch up
with you again soon,
Cheers for now,
Bee
|