all calm
Beoga's Madventure
Henry and Marina Lupton
Thu 3 Dec 2009 18:09
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Wind died right off yesterday evening. Less than
12kts since.
Made for a slow progress but great
comfort.
I saw from the Arc news that many are experiencing
the mad rolling and humidity that we have had.
Everyone slept great last night and the motion was
helped by dropping the hankerchief mainsail and poling out the genoa.
This morning, at following a little
fixin of the spinnaker, we dropped the genoa to swop the strop on it and then
furled it up. THis meant we had no sail up and very little wind. I thought we
wouldnt have the opportunity based on the wind since the start but the time was
right to test the mid atlantic waters. We wheeled her head to wind and took a
plunge. The chest tightening breath taking shock of the cold water was
completely non existent.
Water was really blue and bath warm. Surprisingly
despite having had a diver clean the bottom before we left there is lots of
growth starting again on the hull. I thought once we were moving that wuold not
happen so quickly. Just as well we arent serious about this racing.
So a couple of hours after we planned to change
sails and get her moving we finally got underway with just the kite up. Wind has
been under 12kts all do so far although forecast should bring along 15-20 for
the next couple of days.
Just had a nice tortilla lunch and have replaced
our first gas bottle and pushed another 25L of diesel into the tank. THe spare
diesel drums are burried in the aft locker and its an effort to get to them. Its
easier to do things like that when its calm. Less likely to contaminate the fuel
with sea water too.
Will run the watermaker again after this cos the
guardrails are full of clothes drying. I washed a couple of things this morning
and was surprised that it used as much water as a shower. THe watermaker has
certainly made life very comfortable.
My Dad will be delighted to hear we have fishing
lures astern. Nothing biting yet but there is no way they would have been any
way submerged in weather until now.
Still very hot, so we are using the bimini. The
boom shortening has moved things around so the bit you normally wouldnt use when
sailing is in use and we cant use the normal sailing bit.
Some happy to be under it, others seeking the
rays.
Dermot and Lara did fantastic pizzas last night and
I was nodding off by 7pm. It really is a surprising routine when you are on
watches. I think twas Dermot who worked the watch system which is a brave thing
to do since you never get agreement and there are so many options. Its all too
complicated for me so I just ask when im on every night. We do 2 hours on each
unless we need help in which case as many as are needed get woken. If we were
pushing it we would have more up and longer routines.
We are also rotating bunks. THe forwad cabin was
too bumpy in recent conditions so we use the saloon berths which are great for
holding you in once the lee cloths are up but noisy if there are folk using
navigation table or loo.
Still no sign of other boats and only saw a few
seagulls today.
Looks like there may be a spare boom in a factory
somewhere. Tomas has been working the suppliers and there is an agent in
Martinique the island north of St.Lucia so fingers crossed. Failing that he is
going to take his boom off his boat and hand carry it out and stay with us
for the 3 weeks special training that is obligatory when one swops
booms!
Right I nodded off there and am now sweltering in
the cabin. We''re at 18:55.8N 46:56.9W
take care
h
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