Day 4
Ariana
Sat 23 May 2009 12:13
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Afternoon blog watchers
So, with most of the on board gizmos sorted out,
it's time to catch up on the last 4 days of the good ship 'Ariana' and its crew
of misfits on their epic voyage.
Leading the crew are Andreas (Owner), Joss
(Andreas' son), Claus, Phil (me) and Tony (delivery skipper). Martin was on
board for the first leg but left for business committments.
We slipped lines from Hamble on Wednesday 20th at
0635 after 4 days of very cold, wet and windy weather in the marina.
Motorsailing down the Solent, past the Needles and into the Channel, things
started to go wrong. By mid-Channel we'd lost the GPS, AIS (Auto Identification
System), depth, speed, log, VHF repeater, and worst of all, the toilet started
leaking. With me on deck navigating and the techies below taking the boat apart,
finding all sorts of shabby wiring, by the time we cruised into the lovely
Brittany town of Camaret 39 hours later, we had GPS, depth, speed, log and VHF
back online. After a couple of well-earned beers and we collapsed into
b...... actually, the word 'bed' doesn't quite describe it. More like
'horizontal slot only slightly bigger than our body outline'. But
cosy!
Friday afternoon, after fuelling up we headed out
again, turning south past the tip of Brittany and out into the Bay of Biscay. By
this time the autopilot was working again (temporarily nicknamed "Auto-Jingly"
by the Kuwait crew) although there was a moment of drama when we tried to switch
the AIS on as well and auto-jingly put us into an instant 360 degree turn. Not
funny when you're under sail and on deck at the time.....which brings me back to
the toilet. It's back in use, but only if you reaach into the bilges and turn
on/off 2 stopcocks for each visit. Not so easy in a pitching, confined space in
the dark!
We're now settling into a routine, with Andreas,
Claus and me doing solo 3 hour watches at night, and all of us up during the day
with our various rotated chores. These are divided into Mother (cooking),
Cleaner, Engineer and Deckhand, with remainder of the time either sleeping or
studying for the Yachtmaster exam at the end of the trip. Highlight of my watch
this morning from 0500-0800 was catching a 14" mackerel. We put a hand line out
last night and wrapped it round a winch the wrong way so any bite would make it
'click'. Worked a treat, and as I write this I'm wiping the last morsel of
'Fillet Ariana' (with ketchup) from my mouth.
Up to date now, and we're currently (1300 BST)
about 1/3 acrosss Biscay doing a steady 6 knots in a rather uncomfortable
rolling sea from the north. However, the mood is lifted slightly by the sounds
of Andreas trying to have a shower, but Claus has been warned that his feet
are next since his new shoes stink.
Signing out on Day 4.
Phil
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