Day 13 Light winds
Jacana
David Munro
Fri 23 Jan 2009 21:50
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Today saw the first true light wind day, over night
the winds died down to nothing in the early hours with sails flapping and the
wind indicator doing loops Jacana ground to a halt. The stop lasted a few hours
before a light steady head wind saw us once again making progress, the first
time with a headsail rather than a spinnaker in 7 days. The wind strength varied
up and down, never really settling until an hour before dawn when the wind had
come aft enough to fly the spinnaker. Olive was summoned, hoisted and remained
with us for most of the morning where we benefitted from a large squall passing
a few miles to the north giving us a steady 17 knots. As the afternoon set in
the wind died away again to nothing - more flapping. At about 5 knots of breeze
on the beam, our 5th spinnaker was hoisted - the light reacher. With some
coaxing we managed to build boat speed and once she was set achieved some
very respectable speeds in such light airs. (see attached photograph) We
have named the kite "India" after John's daughter who provided the colour design
in the autumn. (see attached Photograph) As the afternoon wore on, the wind
filled in to a steady 9 knots and "India" was carried into the
evening.
The sun shine returned today and with such light
winds, the decks became almost too hot to walk on. Bimini man erected the Bimini
cover at the rear of the boat for the first time. For the following hour, more
time was spent trimming the Bimini than the sails but the new camp site at the
back of the boat was a great success. Attached is a photograph of David
modelling the Bimini in his new shirt Laura gave him for Christmas. We believe
David to have entered into some sort of sponsorship deal with "Tilly Hats",
as his is a permanent feature perched on his head, whether doing the nav,
cooking breakfast, gybing the spinnaker, it is always there. The hat
"became detatched" this morning and landed on the side deck, very close to
sliding over the edge, Paul leaped in two giant strides like a caped wonder boy
(he's taken to wearing his pants on the outside of his shorts) and retreived the
hat before it was swept away to certain doom. Paul was heralded the hero of the
hour, by himself and was awarded extra gruel and a double tot also by himself.
Paul spent the afternoon advising the other members
of the crew on the latest male grooming products on the market,
information passed on from his GQ magazine which he managed to smuggle
past the weight master before leaving Cape Town. As a subject matter, the crew
perhaps should have paid a little more attention or to be polite any
attention at all given that the four of us have been living in such a tight
confined space for so long.
We have been visited on a couple of nights by
lights on the horizon like the looms of light houses. Two nights ago there were
two very distinct looms and again last night one very distinct loom .They were
large enough to warrant a quick look at the AIS system to see what was
approaching, nothing within 150 miles of us.We have considered a number of
explanations but decided that they were alien space ships come to take Chris
back to his planet, being aliens they don't have to register their vessels on
AIS.
Nature watch
Small brown jelly fish about the size of a 2p
piece.
Flying fish
Plankton
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