Coast hugging

DecaDance's Web Diary
Chris White and Jeanna Coleman
Sat 27 Nov 2010 12:03
Position: 42:10.93N 008:52.55W
 
All started well on the journey from La Coruna: we had 12ish knots of wind and it was great to finally be sailing again rather than listening to the drone of the motor.  We ate a hearty 'campers' stew' in the cockpit (Jame's dinner had a return ticket - poor lad, he's really suffering with sea-sickness) and settled into our watch system.  We still had full sails by the end of Matt's shift, just the genoa out by the time James handed over to Chris, and we were back on the motor with just 2-3 knots of wind by 2am when I started my three hour stint.
 
The sea was glassy calm as the last of the swell had eased away, and here on the "Coast of Death" there was a severe danger of dying of boredom.  As we're following a course just about 10 miles off-shore there weren't even any tankers or cruise-liners to play chicken with and spice things up a bit.  The biggest challenges of the night were guesstimating the two minute soaking time for my Supernoodles, trying to work out what was so super about said noodles and holding my bladder until 5am.
 
Unfortunately, things livened up half way through Ryan's shift.  The motor suddenly juddered and vibrated.  It sounds as though something is wrapped around the prop.  Matt has volunteered to go in the water and have a look (fool), so we're currently detouring to a spot where we can anchor and work out what is wrong.
 
The good news is that it's an overcoat warmer down here.