34:38.299N 015:00.825W
Whisper
Noel Dilly
Wed 5 Sep 2012 16:49
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"Only 114 miles to go! - 5th
September"
Calm royal blue seas and gentle force 3 winds are
still pushing us in the right direction towards Porto Santo.
Our night passage was almost uneventful except for
a ship drifting along at 1 knot right across
our path. It took ages to fathom out his lights, as he was lit up like a
Christmas tree. l thought that it might be a trawler as it was going so slowly,
so did not want to go behind it. It was only as we got closer that we could
see that it was a tanker, but we could not make out his navigation lights. I
never did see his port light. As we were sailing we were making more speed than
he was and before long we cut under his bow at a distance of only 0.3 miles from
him - a little scary to say the least. I was ready with the radio in case he
started to accelerate at an inopportune moment! When we popped out the other
side his starboard light was twinkling merrily.
Whisper just loves these big waves (actually so do
I), one minute the tops of all the waves are visible and then from out of the
blue a large wave creeps up on her, pushing her stem up as the wave catches
her so that we are way up on the top of the crest looking
back down the steep trough as we ride on the top before it passes on under
us and we slide gracefully down the other side gathering speed. In the dark
it is even more exciting as it all appears much faster.
As our journey continues I am making a few "ships
rules" for myself. Yesterday I lost my glass of orange juice all
over the cabin sole, then an empty glass on non slip matting placed
on the table decided that it would commit suicide and jumped off the table
just as I was endeavouring to get our dinner into two large continually
moving bowls. This morning, the thermos cafetiere was brewing happily
on the gimbled stove as it was impossible to leave it anywhere else,
when a rude wave hit Whisper who lurched unexpectedly, sent me across
the other side of the saloon, the coffee pot jumped up and landed back on
the stove in a horizontal position whilst scattering the contents all down the
back of the store and out underneath to the floor below. It took me an hour to
clear up the accessible mess. The swinging stove made the complete task
impossible, once in harbour it can be
removed and the remaining coffee grouts can be cleared out. I used to
wonder how I would occupy myself on this trip, now I know!
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