(Blog No. 44)
Catou
Paul and Sylvie Tucker
Tue 14 Dec 2010 16:10
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14:09.91N 56:06.06W
Tuesday 14th December (Day 23 - and still
talking!)
Noon
Position:
14 deg 10' N 56 deg 6'W
Daily
run: 156'
Average
Speed: 6.50
Knots
Total average
speed: 5.28
Knots
Total Distance
covered: 2929'
Distance to
go: 283'
No. of motoring
hours: 57.7
hours
ETA St. Lucia: @ 6
Knots Thursday 16th @ 1100 hrs
@
5.5 " Thursday 16th @ 1530
hrs
@
5 " Thursday
16th @ 2030 hrs
Thought for the day: There are those that make it
happen, those who watch what happened and those who wondered what
happened!
Today is the day that 'Catou' covers 5000
miles since leaving Plymouth. We covered a total of 2067 miles from the
River Tamar - Las Palmas in The Canary Islands, and today the total distance
from L/Palmas is 2929' at noon. That's quite a mileage for a cruising
yacht!
We have had two most glorious days sailing. The
sort of sailing in the brochures! The sea has calmed down, and the wind
has remained at about 15 knots for 2 or 3 days now, giving us some good steady
constant sailing. It has been really enjoyable. Because we lost one
of our whisker poles a couple of weeks ago, we have not been able to fly both
headsails (genoas), which we had intended to do. However, we have instead
been goose-winged with mainsail out one side and the genoa poled out on the
other. It has worked very well for us. The only problem with
goose-winging is that Dobbie, the Hydrovane self-steering gear is not able to
maintain a very accurate course with wind astern, so we have had to manually
steer so as not to gybe.
Overnight we have closed 'Stella' and she is now just 5
1/2' ahead of us (I switched the radar on earlier and had a sneak look at her
distance from us!) I told them on the VHF this morning that we are getting
the paddles out to help our speed! We can just see them ahead. There
is also another yacht that we have caught up, which is 8' ahead of us and just
to port, but we don't know who she is. She may not be an ARC yacht at all
though. As we now close the north coast of St. Lucia, the yachts will of
course concentrate together, and I'm sure there will be a scramble for the
line! Well, there certainly will be on 'Catou' at any rate.
We are in fact one of the smallest yachts in the
ARC. The numbers allocated to each boat start with the the
largest boats. There were a total of 241 boats (we think) and we have been
allocated number 230, so there aren't many smaller than us! Ben has
been 'crunching' numbers each day when we have downloaded the daily positions,
and it has been very interesting to see the 1/2 dozen or so boats that we have
been tracking and how we all move in relation to each other. 'Maymio' was
our principle challenge, since she was the only other Malo in the ARC, but she
is a longer boat, so she should be faster. Of course we secretly had plans
to beat her - but it doesn't look like we've succeeded in our quest! She
is due to finish tomorrow (Wednesday) and we should be in a day later (we
hope).
Tomorrow will be 'clean ship' day, with some deck
scrubbing, cleaning down below and showers and clean undies all round! We
will check behind the ears and make sure that we all small nice for our St.
Lucian hosts on Thursday. Baker Ben is on his last bread-making
exercise as I type this, and Sylvie is longing to get in and have a couple of
nights in a hotel!
I mentioned that in our 'knockdown' the other day, both
Ben and I lost our blackberrys in the flood in the saloon. I e-mailed
Stacy and Steve at work on Sunday evening and asked if they could get me
another one sorted out. Amazingly, Steve managed to get one picked
up while he was on the way to work on Monday morning (I think that's how he did
it!) and he and Stacy have set it up with a new SIM card (same phone number),
downloaded my back-up at work and send it down to our friends Pam and Brian
- who are travelling to St. Lucia on Friday. Denise organised to
send the blackberry in time for our friends. Phew!
Can't do without my blackberry!
Thanks to everyone who has helped us. My sister
Ange at CCC (Catou Control Centre!) in London, my other sister Clunk, who has
kept us entertained with stories of trying to catch moles with her
mole traps in her garden - sounds like it has been in vain so far! Brian
and Pam, who have been sent various parts for bringing out with them later this
week. Will they have room for their clothes????? David & Sandra in
Kiama, near Sydney (KOS - Kiama Observation Centre), for their sound advise
and cryptic comments, and of course to Lucinda for lending her husband to Sylvie
and I for 4 weeks for this crossing. Sylvie has done an amazing job with
the food and stores, which has worked out perfectly (except corn flakes are at
critical levels now). To Helen, Nigel and all the family for taking so
much trouble to come out and see us - and, we hope, to welcome us on Thursday,
with my old St. Lucian friend Mike who is offering to take them out
on his boat to meet us Thursday morning. Special thanks to Denise, Steve,
Stacy, Ian & Geoff back at Base at work in the North Cotswolds, and to
all the others in the office and warehouse for keeping everything going
while we are away.
Message pour les Quebecois,
Nous avons eu une malchance il y a quelques jours: la
mer etait tres forte et une vague est venue se briser sur babord tandis qu'une
autre vague est venue s'abattre quelques secondes plus tard sur tribord, nous
projetant avec force sur le cote. Nous avons fait un 90 degre, ce qui
est assez rare. Nous avons ete secoue physiquement et moralement!!!! Pauvre
Catou a subi des dommages: une partie de la structure de l'arche a etre tordue a
un endroit, juste ou j'etais assise. La vitre (bonne qualite) n'a pas
brise autrement j'aurais eu le dos triture!!!! Quelle chance dans cette
malchance!!! Les degats auraient pu etre plus serieux: le mat, le boom, les
voiles le systeme electronique. Ca ne vaut pas la peine d'y penser trop. Catou
s'est relevee rapidement et continua son chemin comme si rien n'etait
arrive. Quel bateau solide. On regrette seulement que Catou n'est plus si
impeccable! On fera les reparations necessaires a Ste-Lucie.
J'ai eu beaucoup de temps durant mes nuits de garde pour
penser et m'impregner de tout ce qui m'encadrais. La lune s'est couchee a
une heure ce matin me laissant avec une couverture d'etoiles a contempler.
Les etoiles filantes ne manquent pas non plus! La musique des derniers jours
avait une tendance wagnerienne. Mais depuis cette nuit, la mer s'est un peu
calmee et je pense a Tchaikosky, Satie. Faure, Debussy, Rod Stuart, Brian
Adams, chansonniers quebecois et tant d'autres. Neptune nous a lance des
defis que nous avons su relever. Il y a bien des craintes qui se sont apaisees
ou disparues en ce qui me concerne. Mes capacites de navigatrice sont
bonnes et me donne confiance pour mes projets futurs: en mer et sur terre ferme.
C'est un accomplissement d' envergure. En mer, tout peut arriver et on trouve a
l'interieur de soi les capacites necessaires pour faire face a ces
situations. J'ai grandi!!!!
Nous arrivons dans 2 jours: 25 jours en mer! On arrive
pas a s'imaginer sur la terre ferme entoures de nos amis.
C'est long. C'est tres long!!! Nous sommes parti de la
maison le 10 novembre et nous avons commence notre voyage le 21
novembre!
Si c'etait a refaire? Je ferais la meme
chose!
Sur ce, je vous quitte et vous enverrai un message de
Ste-Lucie!!! J'ai peine a croire que nous serons la dans 48
heures!!!
Grosses bises
Sylvie
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