Position 16:35.5N 42:01.1W
Mariposa Blanca Move
Skip- Andy Petty. Owner hard at work in office!
Fri 1 Feb 2013 18:16
Log 4348
Noon to noon an awful 96nm
GPS to run 1296nm
Afternoon all,
Hot day with little breeze yesterday has cost us time and miles. We finally relented to the iron topsail and resigned ourselves to some tedious prolonged motoring, although during the night we did pick up some breeze and made fair progress under sail only until around 1000 today when it vanished. We spent 6 hrs with the cruising shute making barely 3 knts before giivng in and starting to motor sail again. The impact of course was to find wind and as I type, I am sitting on one ear bashing upwind at 6+ knots but at least its on a course of 270 degrees which suits us fine. The GRIBs say we are firmly in an area of lower pressure with light and variable winds until Sunday evening and thereafter, should pick up steady easterly winds again to help speed us towards our goal.
Today has been quite cloudy and generally unsettled looking, and the barometer has sunk to 1008 from the previous 1020, so low pressure here we come!
Adrian awoke in a foul temper because in his dream he had just been sacked! He later got cross with Mike for waking him for lunch just as his in his next dream, he was about to extract his revenge on the employers! Oh by the way, the fact is Adrian was self employed for years and took early retirement to become a professional boat crew!
There have been an unusally large reported number of strange dreams during this trip (my own consisted of waiting in a queque with a sailing boat, to get the correct papers to permit the boat to cross the international dateline!) and we reckon a half reasonable phycologist would have a field day here out here.
Sinker Waller (aka Ade) is on watch, listening to his IPOD with singer Seasick Steve (this is not an exercise, this is true!!) badly singing folk music. There has just been, as I type, a loud bang and the boat came upright, MIke coming out of his siesta like a jack rabbit! It turned out to be mainsheet shackle at the end of the boom had failed and 15 mins later we are back on our roll. Popular belief is that the gremlin unscrewed the pin while we were watching some dolphins an hour ago.
Oh by the way, Jan has reminded me that the 6 Nations starts this weekend, so "COME ON ENGLAND" and may the French collect the wooden spoon.
As I was about to hit send again, much excitement from the cockpit as Adrian finally caught a fish. Trouble is he doesn't know what type of fish it is, so any help from readers would be welcomed!
The Mariposa Blanca delivery team
