Fw: 23:08.12N 19:20.74W One lump or two?
Lady Corinne
iain and gaynor macalister
Sat 19 Dec 2009 08:58
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----- Original Message -----
From: LadyC
To: LadyC
Sent: Saturday, December 19, 2009 8:18 AM
Subject: 23:08.12N 19:20.74W One lump or two? Good Morning, It's 0100 Hrs in the peaceful and
serene cockpit of Lady Corinne on a beautiful evening at the end of what
has been a glorious day. Firstly a groveling apology to Max, his racing
experience has been mostly in Admiral's cup not as I misquoted America's
cup,
Yesterday was a hell of a day and we spent it all
battling against the elements. The wind was coming from just the
direction we wanted to be traveling in,the sea was very rough and confused and
the best option available to us was to put two reefs in the main leave the
mizzen up and motorsail straight into a strong steady wind strength of around 27
knots with gusts over 30. From start to finish it was with us for 17 hours and
we knew all about it! We have a fair bit of fuel onboard and it suited us
to use some up in an attempt to get to what I consider is the start line,where
the trade winds start, as losing a little bit of weight out of the stern where
it's stored will help to trim the boat and make her better able to cope with
poor conditions. At 0100 Hrs this morning Max and I had gone off watch,the
wind had veered and was showing signs of easing but the engine was
still on. "Max how do you like the idea of tacking (turning through about
100 degrees to go in a different direction) the boat putting the inner foresail
out seeing how she feels and if it's good turning off the engine and getting
some rest?" Asking someone who had just crawled into bed, after the day we'd
had, to go back out into it could have provoked a stream of abuse from
some people but Max in his positive way just said "Let's do it" and was up and
into his wet weather gear before I was. Turned out to be a good move and
half an hour later we were on a completely different boat under quiet sails
heading southwest, just the direction we needed to go,and able to get a much
better quality of rest. There really is no "I'll do it later" on a boat.
This morning saw me on watch as the sun rose behind the clouds that were still
thick on the horizon, but as it rose above them into a blue sky, a slight wind
shift saw a steady breeze set in and by 0700 we were doing 6 knots in the
perfect direction. That set the tone for the day and it just carried
on like that in beautiful conditions and bright,strong sunshine, We spent
the day licking our wounds, sorting out the boat, eating fried cheese and
onion toasties, fresh mango and generally enjoying ourselves oh and I had
the first shave for 5 days, always a treat. The Cuban music that was
wafting out of the cockpit speakers seemed to suit the bottle nosed dolphins and
at one point towards sunset they came to us from every direction leaping into
the air,spinning and slapping back into the water with huge exaggerated
explosions of spray. It's almost as if they want to make sure we've seen
their arrival so as to prepare us for the spectacle. Dexter
Delure put in his first real appearance and Max has taken up the mantle (ha-ha!)
left by Tristan. I'm trying to get him to put some tollo on the hooks in
the hope I can get rid of it sooner as he's not eating it quickly enough for
me. My worry is that I think the smell of it is permeating the very timber
of our craft and that once every fabric of the boat is saturated in the
vile smelling stuff something very,very big is going to happen by and think
we're just a tasty morsel. If you think I'm overreacting to Max's nibbles
just remember Jonah! Another watch has flown by, I'll be back in four hours
to finish off, Do you think Gaynor would like to be woken up with a cup of
tea?
0600 and Max made me a delicious cup of real
coffee and I'm out on watch with a slice of homemade simnel cake and it
looks as though the day has got off to a good start. Although the sun
won't appear for some time yet I can already see the faintest hint of the
sky lightening, to the East, as she makes her slow but relentless progress,
clawing towards the horizon, to greet us anew. I sometimes feel it's
a bit like an intrusion as I watch the majestic cloak of black, diamante
encrusted velvet, being slowly pushed back across the sky, a clear blue sky is
very nice but for dramatic effect night time is the right time. Nights
like tonight are very special times and such an important part of this whole
experience especially when you start to think about the early explorers who
relied on the stars for navigation. Sorry I didn't manage to send the
sunrise pic's I mentioned but technology got the better of me.I think I made the
mistake of not resizing them small enough and then trying to send them as
attachments to the blog. This made the file too big and sending/receiving
success depends entirely on the satellite phone maintaining a good 5 bar
connection for the duration of the transmission. Remember how frustrating
dial-up-modems were? well this is the same but I suppose we are on a
very unsteady platform, bobbing up and down on the ocean, trying to send
signals to a man made satellite which is whizzing round and round in the
sky so I suppose there is room for errors. In future I will send pic's on
their own, Please let me know if the quality of the ones which I hope to get off
today is OK so I can gauge the ideal file size. Thus sees the
dawning of another beautiful day,as you guys start the countdown to Christmas
next week with lots of last minute shopping in the cold we will be here doing
our bit for Blighty with the Union Jack flying proudly at the top of our
mizzen mast against a clear Carolina blue sky, in our shorts slapping on
the sun protection, and wondering if we've got enough mince pies. We hope you've
enjoyed this nautical stroll along with us and that we'll get to enjoy some Xmas
time with you soon.
Hasta La Proxima
Lady C her crew and the getting ever smellier
tollo.
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