Only one happy chappy today
X86
Rich Carey
Sun 10 Dec 2017 16:42
Spent 2 grunty hours sweating on deck trying various sail combinations to gain elusive extra knotty , only to arrive back exactly where we started. You can't make a silk purse out of a pigs ear - so, painful 4 knot crawling it is.
The milocountdownthingy says 222 to go, which would be good at 5 knots average but not good at 4 knots average. That lousy 1 knot is the difference in arriving at Rodney Bay at noon, or at midnight. I kid you .. knot ... With 240nM to go at noon today, a 5 knot average is 120 miles a day - arrival 12:00 on the 12th. A 4 knot average is 96nM a day = 48 miles still to go at 12:00 on the 12th. At 4 knots average, that 48 miles is an extra 12 frikin hours - midnight ... you see my point. Tits!
Currently we're going high of the direct line to St Lucia, in the hope that if the forecast is right and the wind swings slightly to ESE tomorrow, we have a better angle to broad reach down to the target. If the wind stays as it is, we'll have added 20 or so miles for nothing - that's sailing.
Catamarans like broad to beam reaching best, which is why we went so low mid week (12 degrees), seeing the opportunity for a long broad/beam reach coming back up to 15+ degrees on stronger winds)- that worked out really well.
We have a small reserve for motoring tomorrow if necessary, but I don't like running too low on fuel - you never know when you're going to need those iron sails for unspecified duration. So at best we might squeeze out 5-6 knots for 6 hours or so.
What's the hurry up after 23 days at sea (?) - I really really really wanted to get there at noon, so that we could get the Vet aboard and start the Bosun ashore process ASAP. Karen has the Vet tee'd up, and he's promising a fast turn around for the approvals process (because we promised a fast turn around on the palm greasing process). But he's not going to show up at dark o clock, that's for sure. So poor Bosun will be smelly land, but not touchy land, for a while longer.
Jorn made bread for the third time today. That's third batch since we started, not three batches today. Damn fine bread it is to, like real bread, in fact it is real bread. Good effort man. Jorn has turned out to be the best in breed boat cook, for my money. He's really put the effort in with omelets, egg and bacon, steaks, chops, minces with difference sources - and all in even the worst of the bash bash bash weather. He's also been the bbq man, stepping up to the plate time after time, and relegating me to cleaning it afterwards (to be honest, I get a lot of pleasure in cleaning the bbq - yes, weird).
All's painfully slow, on x86 in the day time.
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