13th day at sea
The EJ's Voyage
Mike Everton-Jones
Fri 5 Dec 2008 13:12
|
Well - an interesting night at sea getting caught
out resting on our laurels having done so well to date . A big Black cloud
arrived with its expected squalls and we were a bit late or slow
in predicting its affect so all hands on deck. That's after Scutch
fell out of his bunk and landed on a still sleeping Ollie somewhat to
Ollie's astonishment.
We struggled for a while but with 30 kts winds
furling the Yankee and then coming up into the wind to reef but a surprising
jibe took place and controlled panic followed by a decision to
lower the main entirely and forget reefing .We reajourned to the cockpit to
assess and tidy up
The result was morn prudence and to carry on with
just the staysail ( we were still doing 5.5 kts with that up . Morning arrived
and still 25 to 32 kts of breeze but by 0800 the sun was out, big
sea following us the breeze steadying at 16 to 22 kts and the Yankee
and staysail doing a great job giving us 7.5 to 8 kts. Main still stowed
away.
It was unexpected as the forecast had only
mentioned light squalls and 8 to 12 kts wind . Hey ho that's life at
sea and all are well not even a graze. However lets hope this is the start
of settled trades as the lows have been messing them up so far Forecast was for
light winds until end Saturday so who knows--- watch this
space
Scutch took on chefs duty last night (before
the above) and excelled with a very tasty spaghetti bolognaise ,washed up
by Catherine despite protests that "how can anyone use every saucepan in
the galley and more just making spag bol?"
Time is flying by with the normal chores and
battery charging, water making cooking and the odd dice game that seems to
bring the other out of the participants. Today watermaker giving me grief
as its got lots of air and doesn't seem to want to play so leave it till
tomorrow and we are running engine (in neutral ) to charge the batteries
as the battery charger says its charging but doesn't.
Anyway spirits are good that includes the one in
the cocktail hour glasses ( thanks John and Sue for email and Yes we have
good supplies and will not run out of GIN!!!!
Been meaning to attach a photo of the Belgium
Manx and Peel Flags that we are flying from the port yard all the way
across so be proud that your flag are flying high
Have to go and listen to weather forecast, that's
if I believe it or not so
Love to All
Mike
Falbala
|