Sub Aqua Man
X86
Rich Carey
Mon 5 Mar 2018 02:31
Karen made it, and so also dogo. All stress and efforts down to a sort of zero, as temporary residency in Scottyland begins. Operation 'Bosun land dog' accomplished - super, super, well done to Karen, who just reported in with news that Dogo is sporting two fleece jackets on his snow time walks, and loving it.
After the bit of a pasting we took from the night squals leaving Puerto Rico waters, all settled as forecast, and turned out 'right nice'. It's a full moon this week, this area, so not so many stars to look at, but we're bathed in light all night, and the sea glistens all around. Sebastian and I are doing 6 on 6 off, with no rotation - I'm doing the 9 till 3 watches. When I came on at 9 today. there was 2 knots of wind and glass smooth sea, albeit with the long period ocean swell. Very nice, but the sails a floppin. Still, that meant that 'the job' could be attacked.
Donned the sub aqua gear at 11:00 and went over the wires armed with bread knife. Spent 15 minutes hugging the sail drive shaft, sawing manically away at the netting. 8mm nylon trawler netting is very tough stuff - no easy removal task I assure, especially as the ocean swell and general current, keeps banging your bonce and shoulders on the underneath of the hull. There's also a darn good chance of sawing off a couple of fingers in the fight, although I mitigate that somewhat, with kevlar gloves. The scuba tank was in the red when I resurfaced, but job jobbed.
We then hauled the netting up on deck and strapped it to the trampoline on the front, ready for responsible disposal in a skip when we get to Santa Marta.
With two engines back in commission, and the combination of a couple of days wind (sailing)+ diesel economizing, we lit up both donks and sped off at a pony tail disturbing 7 knots for 7 hours with 7 inch swell of 7 second period. With just under 200 miles to go (this morning), we reckoned good chance of getting in before dark the following day (Monday), as long as we held an average of 6+ knots. So the speed-up for a while, was to make sure we had a buffer on that average. As we stand now (tapping this at 10:00 pm), things look very much on plan, in fact I'd hazard an optimistic, by forecasting us bodies in a Columbian bar, by 18:00 tomorrow. No Cocaine thanks, I'm daft enough already.
Went to the toilet a short while back (currently working great, in case you wondered!), and found a flying fish on the floor - flown clean in through the open window - idiot!
All's well on x86, with Mac&Cheese for dinner :-)
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