Donner und Blitzen!
Fleck
Sun 18 Nov 2012 10:48
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It has been an eventful 24 hours weatherwise, as we
gradually turn due west for Durban. Yesterday found us motoring in no wind,
later we had a light headwind, we tried sailing into it, but no progress over
the ground, so settled for a night's motoring. Quiet until predawn when a great
thunderstorm blew up: the first I have seen since leaving SE Asia. This was a
corker, the sky constantly bathed in floods of flashlight, and thunderclaps
getting ever closer to our position. And then it was dawn, and the storm just
went away. But not quite all, as a southerly blow then rolled through, 6 hrs
earlier than expected. A gentle affair as these things go down here, but poor
old Fleck was all ends up in the seas. Got going on a reach however, and as the
day has progressed the winds have moderated, to the extent that typing here at
the chart table is quite feasible, despite the odd jolt. I have added some more
sail, and after todays forecast, perhaps some more. Our average speed has been
dissapointing, and we are still 550 miles from Durban, so fingers crossed for a
couple of days E or SE trades again.
Now that the weather has settled I have an appetite
for lunch, Home made bread again a winner on board, and also pleased to report
that Geoff is now a fan of my malasysian veg curry, even though the ingredients
are limited to what remains fresh on board. Next time I make bread I must
remember to remove Geoff's GPS set from the oven: I caught him squirrelling it
away last night, to try to protect it from a lightning strike.
Our French friends are much faster than us, and are
probably in Richards Bay already, they caught a huge tuna yesterday, recorded in
Hemingway style, so it must have been a memorable episode. I am glad not to
fish these days: altogether too messy, and plenty of tuna in tins in the
forcabin. Enjoying Martin Amiss' The Rachel Papers, I must have been a very
sheltered 19 year old, myself. Geoff has finished his New Scientists, and is
unravelling a book that I have lent him on Quantum theory. I do hope that he is
sucessful in this endeavour, as then he can explain it to me!
Your humble respondants, Gand R
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