Keoma - 7 December
Dearloves
Wed 7 Dec 2005 15:02
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Last night was another disturbed one for us, the
third in a row. Around 2300 hrs we were sailing along under a
double-reefed mainsail and small amount of genoa and we experienced a constant
30 knots of wind for 10 minutes. The waves were confused and difficult to
helm, and we were relieved that the autopilot was switched on. It coped
but we had the feeling that it was near the edge of its competence.
It is also noisy down below with the sound of water rushing past the hull and
blocks moving on deck, when travelling at such speed.
So we decided to shorten sail by taking down the
mainsail. Even with just a patch of genoa out, we are still making a
regular 8 knots (occasionally up to 10 knots) and remain sailing with the
same sail configuration, at noon the following day.
The GPS is getting a lot of attention, particularly
from the perspective of how many miles to go. As I write it says 329
miles to go and predicts that this will take us around 40 hours. This
would get us there in the early hours of Friday morning.
It seems crazy that we are sailing along in
beautiful sunshine, have a nice constant wind, and are surfing down waves;
fantastic conditions, yet the focus on board is our arrival in St Lucia.
We are all quite tired after several tough nights, and it is difficult to find
anything interesting to eat. Fruit, salad and ice cream are high on the
wish-list.
We still have reasonaly big waves. Apparently
the swell is around 6 metres. Occasionally the boat will be hit by one
coming from a different direction and we are then thrown around a bit. I
was sitting at the chart table this morning and ended up on the floor when the
boat was hit by one of these waves and went over on its side. Everything
down below tends to end up on the floor; my pet hate is pencils, which then roll
around noisily. Making tea or coffee is a real game; it is hard to get the
boiling water in the moving cup, then once it is full it is just waiting to
slide down the counter and topple over. After that it is just a question
of getting the cup from the galley, across the saloon and up on deck without
spilling it all.
 Charlie on deck - note big wave
behind
 Juliet at top of companionway - more
large waves
 Amanda on
deck
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