December Rain
ALICE'S ADVENTURES
ANDREW AND CELIA SHARPE
Thu 2 Dec 2010 12:26
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Yesterday morning started well for us sailing with
headwinds goose winged out at last and travelling at just over 4 knots. On
the horizon appeared a parasail which in no time at all passed us. This
colourful sail was attached to Rickaros, a Bavaria 46 which as some of us know
are notoriously fast boats! Crewed by a Norwegian family who we had first
met in Oeiras (near Lisbon), Mum, Dad and their 9 year old twins. Later on
the wind veered and we ended up broad reaching until nightfall by which
time Rikaros was just a speck on the horizon in front of us. Being a
cautious lot on Alice and wanting a restful night we reduced sail.
The wind strength decreased for a while then steadily built up to 15 - 20
knots. We were still on a broad reach for several hours and
Alice averaged 8 knots boat speed even hitting 11.1 knots in a
squall. Fantastic sailing and we are now ahead of Rikaros again for
the time being.
The wind decreased this morning and we put up the
lighter downwind sail. Right now we are in the middle of a tremendous
downpour. Chris is at the wheel, Andrew is scrubbing the decks in his
speedos, George and Roger are having "rain showers" and Celia
is down below in the dry working on the laptop!!
Yesterday was the 1st of December so Celia gave George
the deckhand his traditional advent calendar. Thank you as well to Jenny
for our chart Advent calendar.
ALICE
Still raining so all made the most of the fresh water
showers!
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