Day 3/4
Gaviota
Mon 10 Jan 2011 13:10
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17:11.000N 35:19.458W
Distance so far 713nm
Shortly after writing the last diary entry the wind picked up
to around 25knots gusting 35knots, so, with 3 reefs in the mainsail we were
hammering along quite nicely and our average speed increased to over 7 knots.
During the last 2 nights the sea has become much wilder with increasing cloud.
I completed saturdays night shift to see Captain Syd
asking me if I fancied putting up the second genoa before breakfast.
As the wind was slowly coming from the east the 2nd genoa was to be
put on the starboard side with #1 genoa using the end of the
boom therefore acting like a spinnaker but much more practical as
both genoas could be used on the port side if the wind shifted back
to NE. This was a method patented by Syd on the ARC but took us all morning
due to the differance in sizes-The new one is shorter in the luff so we had to
raise this in order to get the big one tight up against the forestay. A
combination of that and the easterly wind pushing us along at 7knots made it an
absolute nightmare to set up and would have looked amusing to anyone
sailing past watching the 2 of us getting soaked and swearing at the bloody
thing. If I knew he meant before breakfast the following day I would never
had bothered.
The upshot of Syds sail system meant that we were absolutely
hammering along. It's quite historic for Captian Syd and his Gaviota
as during the 24hour period from saturday midday to
sunday midday we racked up a new record of 191miles that gave us an average
speed of 7.96 knots. We've now seen 3 other yachts at sea, all of which we've
passed like they were stationary. Syd revels in the glory and can often be seen
basking in all the praise heaped on him by other boats by radio as we pass them.
In other news Lisa seems to be slightly better on the sea sick
front. I actually saw her move earlier-probably to get some more Stugeron. She
now has the new title of Chief Wildlife Spotter as she seems to be first to spot
anything moving in the water. Syd also confessed he's been having a dream where
he's throwing pizza at B.A. Baracas!! In my experienced opinion of psycho
analysing this dream I would say it's directly related to trying to
get Lisa "I aint getting on no boat, fool" Gwynne onto a boat by hiding Stugeron
under the pepperoni in her pizza. I could be wrong. Other stuff has happened too
but it gets very nausious writing this while the boats' like a non stop
rollercoaster.
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