1st July 2014
JABA
Basil Panakis
Tue 1 Jul 2014 09:07
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39:59N 2328W
By noon we will cross the 40th I hope. I have been up
and down at least 6 times this morning with reefing and unrolling the
genoa...very fickle wind, at least allows me some northing.
The thing that worries me is my right wrist, I have this
pain since leaving Horta and it is getting worse despite me taking voltarol on
and off. I stopped these now and gone over to Jackie's remedies.
Let's see.
I did all five Fastnet in the nineties. 1991 was quite a
nice one, the crew was brilliant, well trained to the degree that when the
trailing log packed up they still looked at it every hour. Two chemists, one
research the other teacher, a patent solicitor, Didcot power station manager, an
architect/surveyor so I am missing two. Sera was in the Oxford rowing team but I
cannot remember what she was doing at the time. There was another guy whose name
and occupation escapes me at present. I can see him holding the tiller. Roger
was the bilges rat, he took all to himself to clean the floor every time it
became an ice rink, you see we had a rusty diesel tank that leaked. It was the
year I was wearing red silk underwear and one of the girl's husband, a Colonel I
believe, couldn't figure out why I was not taking things seriously. Roger was
the Bass man, that was all he drunk. Around the Lizard we wrapped the spinnaker,
then the fog came down we had no log no Decca so next stop was France instead of
Plymouth. First Sera then I went up the mast and sorted it out. In Plymouth we
went out for a meal and unbeknown to me during the day they found an artist who
sketched Hope & Glory rounding the Fastnet and all eight of them signed
it and presented it to me at the dinner. I had it framed and is hanging in our
lounge. The Colonel died and Di started having flying lessons. Sue moved to
Manchester. I still keep in touch with Roger. He bought a Sigma 362 to go around
the world with it but he discovered he had back problems so he sold the yacht,
still went around the world but by flying from place to
place.
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