Carry on up the Caribbean
Fleck
Sun 4 Mar 2007 17:10
Conny will, mercifully for her opinion of us
British, never have seen a Carry On film. Nice to talk to her on the Sat phone
this Sunday morning, Hannah was top in a maths test at school, well
done!!
Noon position: 14.33N, 65.55W
24 hour run (reach!) 136 miles
Thus still excellent progress, and I am able to
wrie this in relative comfort as the first squall of the trip has just passed
through, leaving a calm for a while in its wake. My good progress is a niusance
because I must slow down dramatically in order to approach the Island of Curacao
in daylight. There are hardly any lighthouses,
and the entrances to the two safe lagoons are very narrow.
Tonight I plan to 'heave to' for twelve hours. This
involves trimming the two sails in oposite directions, and a long keeled boat
like Fleck should do it well (I've only tried it once for a couple of minutes),
and sit in a fairly constant position. She won't however keep still, and will
still roll about. I'd rather do this out here than closer inshore where there is
likely to be more traffic, together with the possibility of
getting shipwrecked if I fall asleep, as I hope to! One coaster passed very
close by yesteday afternoon, which woke me up a bit and will hopefully keep me
on my toes.
Talking of which I stubbed one of mine last night,
and there was an ominous snapping sound. Hopefully its just cracked a bit, and
that I havn't pulled off too much of the extensors, otherwise you end up with a
claw toe, and I will have to have one of Conny's blocks while they straighten it
out. Or I could live with it!! Its gone black, but only bruising, no need for
the amputation knife just yet.
On which cheerful note,
anon.
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