Return, 2nd report 40:27.31N 20:06.22W
Ellatrout3
Mon 7 Jul 2008 08:39
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6th July 23:00
Hi all,
Slightly different "personal style" to this report
- its being written by me (Paul); 1st Mate, Cabin Boy, Catering Manager and
Senior Deck Assistant. 'Afore we left the Azores we were in conversation
with one of the other JAC boats and they were talking of Co-Captains. Rest
assured, I am delighted to entrust my safety to the sailing and navigation
skills of my Captain - one is certainly enough in my book!!
So, its late Sunday evening, the Skipper is asleep
(where else??) and, unfortunately, my finger-tapping on the keys
is accompanied by the thump of the engine. There isn't enough wind
for us to sail and, if there was, it would be blowing straight at us - not
ideal for making headway. So Mr Volvo-Penta is pushing us towards
home at a stately 2.7 knots in a slightly lumpy sea.
Today has been a day of contrasts, we almost
started the day with engine on (02:00 to be precise) and motored until
08:30 when the wind had risen sufficiently (and the skipper got up!!). Then, joy
of joys, we got the spinnaker flying!! In the words of a little known
philosopher..... yeeeeehaaaaaaa!!!! From 08:51 until 14:15 we were
screaming along, sailing at its most exciting. Surfing down waves at
over 10 knots, sometimes we were even in control.... In the end, the
combination of wind and sea state was getting over-exciting (even for us) and so
we reverted to a more relaxed rig. It was glorious, indeed it was such fun
that we hardly noticed the fact that it had been pouring with rain for about an
hour. However, that quickly cleared up and we were soon feasting on a
little salad concotion sat in the cockpit under a blazing sun.
Thereafter many happy hours of robust sailing until the wind disappeared at
20:00 and we had to turn the noise on. That
was today!
More generally, I'm very pleased to report that the
skipper is fully functional again. Sickness and stomach bugs appear a
thing of the past. My exotic menus are being eaten with gusto and not
forced down; and we've been fine tuning everything all day to squeeze that extra
0.1 of a knot!! After our first two days of great progress, things slowed
down dramatically: on day 3 we only managed 73 miles; today's fun with the
spinnaker boosted our progress and we covered 103 miles on "day 4" (that is 4 x
24 hours from our departure at Azores rather than calendar days). Our log
is showing us as having run 517 nautical miles since leaving Azores, with 796 to
go to Pwllheli. Unfortunately, the weather charts show us sat in a small
patch of quiet so we may have the motor running for a while yet - which would
mean that progress would continue at a more sedate pace. We
shall see.
No more major wildlife sightings to report.
We were too busy enjoying ourselves today to notice much, a lone dolphin a 06:00
this morning - I saw that (the skipper was asleep!) and a shoal(?) of small
jelly fish floated by this evening. Yesterday however we saw quite a
collection of Portugese Men of War (Mans of War? Man of Wars? Men of Wars? Mens
of War?) - answers on a post card please, this was something we discussed at
length earlier!! They seemed to time their arrival by the boat according
to whenever I had just put my camera safely away - photo shy perhaps? I'll
keep trying, they are fascinating to see.
I should probably stop now, I need to get a weather
fax from those nice Royal Navy Fleet Weather and Oceanographic Centre
people at Northwood. The short-wave (SSB) radio receiver and fax
software on the PC work a treat and we can get far more information than we are
able to understand!
After that, if I can rouse the Captain, I
may manage to catch a few minutes of sleep myself, maybe.....
Regards for now.
Paul and Roger/Poppa/Dad
P.s. I think the spinnaker ride may have tired the
lad, we were on the edge at times, so I've sent him to bed 02:16; need him fresh
in the morning.
Captain.
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