Alarms That Go Ting-a-ling in the Night
Juno
Tue 25 Nov 2014 16:51
| 25:17.44N 020:14.30W Day Three at Sea - 25/11/14 All the crew are mightily impressed with the Skipper's willingness not to take us to the Western Sahara this time! Thus, we are on a more direct track which will connect (hopefully) with the Trade Winds in the southern sector of the North Atlantic ocean. The slight glitsch is the the bigger racing boys HAVE indeed elected for the Saharan route and are singing along at 11 kts - typical. The thoughts of potential sea-sickness have been replaced by potential diesel sickness. Even the dauntless Gunnery Dept (Shrimpy and deputy Schnoogle) have struggled when hanging upside down to mop out the diesel tank area ans attempt a re-seal. The sweet, cloying smell of diesel hangs like a mist in the main saloon. The Skipper has resolved to wash his undies and use the liquor to clean out the bilge. That's competition for you. The Galley Chief's Department (Schnoogle and deputy Shrimpy) have already run out of ideas on Day Three. Chorizo sausage on Sunday, Bratwurst on Monday and now more flippin' sausage in the form of Frankfurters today. As punishment for lack of imagination we will be sending them into the rear starboard lazarette locker to repair a twitchy bilge pump which sounded off in the middle of the night last night - they so love hanging their heads down voids. The Foredeck Department (Baines deputy Mikey) are content with the labour of love applied to sail changes, we must, however, try to prevent the Skipper's invlovement as when his tweaks are applied we lose 2kts of boat speed. Fishing (Gunnery) is continuing in earnest but alas our Coke tin fish-strike alarm system has not signalled any activity. This may, of course, be due to the strange harmonics coming from Juno's forward cabin warning of a sleeping whale in the area. All-in-all we are settling down for the long haul with lots of day-time snoozing and boat repairs to keep ourselves busy. Breakages: Starboard lazarette bilge alarm (no water ingress detected) Diesel leak (continuing but improving) Areas of concern: The Doc's thoughts that wearing his lifejacket like a bra would be good for his figure/image Chef's choice (continual) of sausages Skipper's wash tomorrow Footnote: 15.15 GMT Two sailing vessels have been spotted on our starboard side (300 nm from anywhere). They are not ARC boats but it confirms that we are at least heading in the right general direction. |