12 56 415N 040 09 050W
Fair Do's VII, Atlantic 2008....
Professor John Shepherd
Wed 3 Dec 2008 12:02
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Half a world away and it is raining.......A
lot!
Bedragled, at risk of starvation and malnutrition
and now becoming so bored that we have to cruelly bully and ridicule each other
for entertainment.
These are the highs and lows of the trip thus
far......
Today started well, after a slow and uneventful
night (apart from seeing three enemy to port which we hope represents more
gains) we all had a chat and breakfast on deck listening to Bill Withers
and "Gonna be a lovely day...." How wrong the lyrics were.
We are now essentially adrift, ghosting our way
west in the lap of the gods to see where the breeze fills in from, who gets it
first and to see if it gets turned inside out so the boats behind, who think
have decent breeze get brought up to us. Or indeed if those in the North, who by
common consensus should taken a beating luck in! Note everyday you see the word
impossible in a weather forecast to route you out of the
trough.....
Even more exciting we are expecting squalss up to
40 knots later which means we'll have to take the kite down for 10 minutes get
torrentially rained on and then stick it back up. Fun, fun, fun.
Until we break into soem decent breeze on the other
side of this - maybe 200 miles - Christmas, Fun, Food have all being cancelled
in a hope not to have to eat Matt as the going gets tough.
Beard updat - Paul shaved, he has been ridiculed
for it though maybe shedding the extra weight will get us there faster, he has
also been useful above deck. He has perfected the bow and we are coming out of
the gybes rapidly, though we have had plenty of practice. Additionally, he has
done a fair bit of steering through the nights as staring at the 20:20's (lit
instruments on mast) have been inducing halucinations, dizziness and chronic
fatigue in the darker nights of late.
When I say dark, it is amazing, we had no stars
(there has been no moon at night after 2230 since we started anyway). Last night
was almost impossible to see the kite, so you had to do it solely by the heading
and true wind driection on the mast - tricky.
Anyway, best report the 1200 position, we hope 1900
will bring news that everybody's predicament
is as dire as ours.
P.S. We are now commencing 11 - at 1240! At least
we are half way there!
1211 miles to go to NE St Lucia - George ihas
calculated that at this pace it is the same as walkign to Lake Garda from the
midlands - I may be some time.......
Thanks for the mail Tim S.
Regards,
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