Blog
Imagine of Plymouth
Arthur
Thu 29 Nov 2007 10:56
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Hello people,
sorry for no blog yesterday, was very frustarting.
The night was Ok but in the morning we where very slow, trying to make headway
in little breeze. During the night we where almost heading for the USA and when
we gybed for Africa!! Anyway the wind did come in yesterday afternoon in the
form of a very big squall. We where hunting them down but this one was big and
we had the kit up. Some slick crew work by arthur, rudy and mark and she was
down. Wind increased from 5 kntos to 25 knots in under 4 minutes!! As there was
little breeze around us we gybed a few time in squall to stay with it. This
worked and we made good progress.
Arthur was on cooking duty and heated one of
Renates earlier prepared meals. I can not stress how easy this when it is going
rough or people are feeling a bit sick. As we are running the generator approx 6
hours a day we can also have showers (warm) coffee from an espresso machine and
Arthur actaully got the Miele vacuum cleaner out.
We also tried to fish but lost the complete first
real and on the second attempt a dolphin snatched the fish of the hook. So no
luck so far. The night was uneventfull although we had a lot of wind direction
changes and one squall during Marks watch. We have been heading south for most
of the night to get to the trade winds. They have still not come in so we gybed
put the kite up. Now heading 260 towards St Lucia. Only 2000 miles to go!! We
have covered 641 miles so far.
For those interested our position is 23 07 168N and
025 05 949 W
Cruising along at 8-9 knots with a VMG of nearly
the same!!
So we are all happy sailors, we had our first fried
breakfast which was lovely. Chris is obvioulsy settling in nicely because he did
not get ou7t of bed untill 1030. He has discovered the advantages of earplugs.
You now need shout to get him up for his watch!
Robert is longing for the shore side facilities. He
had his first No2 today after nearly 5 days at sea, it was not
pleasant..........he came up with tears in his eyes
So what else is there to say, the boat is
performing above expecations. We are designing in our heads now the ideal
cruising boat as there are quite a few niggles we like to change especially down
below. Last night proved again that the open ballroom saloon is not very
pleasant to move around in any seaway. It a bit of a dive. The galley and chart
table are very pleasant to work in. The cockpit has got several levels with the
most comfortable positions being taken by Robert and Chris. Arthur and Rudy hand
steer the boat most of the time although the autopliot does a great job in light
airs. Have now also become familiar with the multi display unit for radar and
navigation. We have started to play with it tracking squalls and boats, of
the latter we have seen remarkably few. Usually only one boat in
sight.........For Robert it was today the first occasion he was out of sight of
land and any boats although I broke the news within a few minutes that i could
spot a yacht 4 miles away.
Time for shower and get ready to do a bit behin the
wheel although I think the autohelm is doing better job at the moment than I
can!!
Take care of you all, feel free to send us an email
but no pictures or videos as that does not work to my knowledge.
email imagineofplymouth {CHANGE TO AT} mailasail {DOT} com
<imagineofplymouth {CHANGE TO AT} mailasail {DOT} com>
Regards from Imagine of Plymouth
Rudy, Arthur, Chris, Mark and Robert.
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