36:37.350N 012:59.171W
Whisper
Noel Dilly
Tue 4 Sep 2012 12:06
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"Half Way There - 4th September"
Only 262 miles to go and we are half way! The wind
is still from the North and the large seas continue to catch Whisper's quarter
and push her up into the wind until Windy Bill gently coaxes her back on course.
Last night, whilst I was or watch
there was a loud bang and Whisper gathered speed in the wrong
direction, in the moonlight I could see that Windy Bill's paddle was not
functioning. I freed the tiller and took over the helm which was pretty heavy
with a following sea and 14 knots of wind, so there was much clattering and
banging of sails as we gybed and then got back on course again. There was
only half an hour before Noel would be up on his watch, so I thought I could
keep a reasonable course until he came on deck, now that I had
sorted myself out. However all the commotion had woken him and he appeared
from below. He immediately saw that WB had broken one of his 'traces' and
disappeared below emerging with a piece of string and quickly fixed the problem.
WB was then back on duty once again.
It is very lonely out here, no birds, dolphins,
yachts, fishing boats or lobster pots. We have only seen two freighters in the
past 24 hours. Preparing meals is interesting and time consuming. So far
I have spilt milk,a bottle of water and a glass of orange juice. Everything
slides about at any given moment, made worse by the fact that we are
permanently on starboard tack and the galley being on the starboard side of the
boat means that every time I open a cupboard the
contents rush towards the opening in a bid to escape!
YIPPEE! We are exactly half way, I think we will
celebrate by fishing out a beer or two from the bottom of the fridge, this will
most certainly cause a migration of the contents to the lowest comer!
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