Sat 26/11/11  – Tickety Boo – 21:48.3N 27:53.4W

Weather and Sailing

We have had a pretty decent day today, with our best 24 hour run. When we set off from Gran Canaria, our weather guru (Chris Tibbs) had said that we should be aiming for a line around 20 o N and between 30 and 35 o W, since the southern route was the most promising in the context of the prevailing weather. We plotted an eastern and western vector for this and set off aiming for the middle of the target, but we found that our rig and the wind direction meant that we were drifting east of this. We would get a wind shift from time to time that allowed us to get frustratingly close to the eastern rhumb line, but then the wind would ease back northwards and we would be forced to head away from it. We got the feeling that Chris felt we weren’t trying hard enough!

Happily, over the last 24 hours, the wind strengthened and moved to a more easterly direction, and we had a riotous sail overnight (not much sleep, unfortunately) and managed to cross the eastern line this morning. Better still, the forecast suggests that we will hold a helpful wind direction for 2 or 3 days, so we should get close to 20 o N, and that should put us firmly in the trades. We must also be doing something right, since we have passed about 15 other ARC yachts who all left before us as well as having a few behind us who had similarly delayed starts. Maybe we will not be the last into St Lucia after all.... mind you, still 2000 nm to go after tonight and lots can happen yet!

Close Encounters

The overnight winds, which exceeded 30 knots at times, left a confused and choppy swell this morning, so we whiled away the time by hand steering instead of using the Hydrovane, as it allowed us to avoid the worst of the down-swell slewing (and being bodily lifted from the bunk).  When we were doing this, Bob (Alan) saw a shape in the water passing in the opposite direction less than 3 metres away – it was our second whale, and gave us a bit of a fright – hope we did the same for him (or her)...  it turned and paused immediately behind us and blew couple of times, probably thinking like us that “where the heck did he come from?”!

Disappointments

Even though we keep reminding each other about the boat rolling and the need to batten everything down, we all continue to make mistakes. Or, at least, I do. My turn to cook tonight, and took great care to put lids on and put stuff on the non-slip mats, and generally be watchful. Normally, things put in the microwave are secure, but apparently not in these conditions. Back turned only for a moment, the boat lurched one way and then the other, the container leapt sideways in the microwave, barged the door open and landed smack in the middle of my back from whence it slithered down to the floor creating an unholy mess. Thankfully, it was not hot. Another timely reminder, though, and sadly it was one of Ceri’s specials (Martin’s daughter), to whom I owe a craven apology for gross carelessness. A propos a previous comment, both Martin and I thought that it would have been fine once cooked through, but Ali the “hygiene monitor” took immediate action to consign it to the deep (whale food?). The provisioning expert for the ARC organisation had suggested before the off that all crew should be fastidious about keeping the galley floor clean, since you never knew when it would be your dinner that landed there! Now see what she meant....

Findus the Fisherman

Martin is regretting his cavalier approach to the fishing project yesterday, when he threw 2 beautiful mahi-mahi fish back into the sea. This is not just because I ruined Ceri’s dinner, but because he hasn’t had a bite all day. Yesterday, it all seemed so easy – 2 landed and discarded because each was a bit small for 4 portions (the 2 would have been fine though!) – then 2 much larger fish hooked but escaped. He is on a mission for tomorrow, since we hope to celebrate about 1/3rd of the passage behind us...

Watergaw