Wow....what a Corker!
Magnetic Attraction
Roger and Margaret Pratt
Thu 12 Dec 2013 18:10
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Thursday 12
December 2013
15:08.44N 49:56.74W Course: 270 Engine Hrs: 3 (all for battery charging purposes) Day's Run: 163 miles (best yet, average speed 6.8knots!!) Total: 2,405miles Temperature 28.0C Water temperature reading 31.5C Wind speed: 23knts Wind direction: 85T Well what a night it was!! The forecast was
deliberated upon and the outcome was an increase in wind to about 25+knots
during the early hours. The decision was made to plan ahead and put our
third and final reef in whilst it was still light. This was fine but we
had moved the clocks back another hour so it meant darkness sprung upon us
very quickly meaning we ended up eating in the dark as the reefing delayed
Bryan (mother) preparing dinner. We could do a reef with the three of us
leaving Bryan to do the dinner but with Roger's rib injury he is limited in
the amount he can do due to the pain it causes him! At Bryan's request,
great care was taken that the cook didn't take an unexpected seawater shower,
however the other three got it instead!
Roger's watch (1900-2300) went by with no real
hitches. Margaret's however (2300-0300) had quite a corker of a watch!! As
the wind was slowly building she was furling up more of the genoa. She was also
keeping her eye on these two clouds following us when suddenly they merged to
become one huge cloud. Margaret was furling in a bit more genoa in anticipation
when this big squall / gust came though when she shouted down "Bryan,
I think I need some help...I have just seen 35knots!" Whilst Bryan was now
winching in the genoa Margaret saw up to 40 knots of breeze!! I was down in my
bunk and I suddenly felt like we were charging forwards parting the seas at the
rate of knots!! She was then handing over to Bryan for his watch (0300-0700)
which he continued to sail with just the main up for about an hour just to be on
the safe side! This morning it is a steady 22-24 knots from the east with the
swell now also from the east so we are occasionally surfing down these huge
(3m) waves which seem to be quite steep at times!! To save on some battery juice
we are all taking turns at helming! Who would have thought we would be taking
the helm whilst sailing across the Atlantic!! After about an hour of it
you can really feel it on your shoulders and you start to loose a bit of
concentration!
Margaret and Roger have some Danish friends
who are competing in the Atlantic Odyssey which is an organised crossing of the
Atlantic. We have been getting their position sent to us from a few of our
dedicated shore support members. They have also sent us the radio frequencies in
which they would be using daily at 1200 GMT to share their positions. Today was
the first day that we attempted to get a signal and we were closely listening
into a number of people telling a coordinator their positions and their current
wind conditions! We were unsure as to whether or not they were from the
Odyssey or the ARC, another organised crossing group. Then suddenly we heard
Capibara calling asking if he was being heard because his radio fell off his
shelf earlier and he was unable to hear, the normally heard, Odyssey boats
checking in. This was a huge amount of luck and chance for us. After listening
to the ARC talking about their sail plans, all the same as us (three reefs and
and small genoa) and the fact that their auto pilot's were only just coping
which led them to have to hand steer, shock horror! Roger then managed to
interject and managed to get through to Henrik and they arranged to speak on
another frequency so as not get in the way of the ARC boats. Then to both
peoples delight the signal was good and they had a good old chin wag and a catch
up. During this Henrik suddenly said "Hang on it's fallen off the shelf again!"
Roger proceeded to tell him he needed to screw it on when Henrik came out with
the excuse he didn't have time, actually to admit later on he just couldn't be
bothered!! Sounds like a character! Roger has now arranged to have another
chat this evening. They are a smaller boat, only 30ft, and left 6 days before us
yet we are 150+miles ahead of them! They average around 80 miles a day unlike
our current 150!
Half of our talk now is about what we
prioritising to do when we get there!! A general one for us all is to jump in
for a swim ASAP!! The other thing we would all like is a nice dinner that does
no look "slop" like, i.e. curry and rice, casserole and rice, spag bol....etc.!!
Oh I guess I should also mention that we all have a specific tipple we are
looking forward to having...the boys fancy a chilled beer, Margaret "could kill
for a glass of wine" and I fancy a rum and ginger!!
The wind is set to increase
slightly to about 25-30 knots until we get there so it should only be
4-5 days now, especially as we "only" have 640 miles to
go...yay!!
Until next time...which will be my last one
hopefully....Au Revior!!!
Lucy
(Mother)
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