18.49N 053.28W
Mojo 2
Andrew Partington
Sun 22 May 2011 13:19
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We tore up the record books yesterday with a
whopping 142NM for the day. Not bad given we are effectively limping home
without our mainsail! This now places us with less than 500NM to go.
Signs of life are slowly presenting themselves to
us again. On watch last night I saw a plane flying overhead in the clear skies.
I wondered if someone was looking out their window seening our tiny speck
of a masthead night in this vast ocean. It is the first time in around 10 days
we have seen a plane but the past two nights are the first with clear skies in a
while too.
A couple of days back a ship appeared on our
AIS. It was passing behind us and travelling at 17 knots. It was one of those
giant gas carrying ships travelling to Spain. Its nearest approach to us was
22NM so there was no way we were going to see it. For those who don't know what
AIS is, it is a tracking system that allows us to see commercial vessels. They
show up as small green triangles but are shaped so you can tell which is the
pointy end of the ship. If you touch your finger on the triangle it will tell
you the ship's name, how fast it is travelling, where is is going, how long it
is, its radio call sign, plus loads of other useful information, including
the distance to its collision point with you. If the ship is on a collision path
with you and you are close enough to it the triangle turns angry red and
the chartplotter screams at you to take measures to aviod this. Around
Spain, and especially at night, it felt like you were playing that game "Flight
Control" that you can get on your I-Phone. There were green triangles
everywhere going in all directions at speeds that varied from 8 knots to 22
knots. We were never bored. The green triangles have to this point all but
disappeared from our screen. I expect that will change as we head to
Panama.
With our approach closer to land we have been
discussing daily what food we will devour first. The concensus is
clearly fruit, with a big, chilled, crispy apple appearing to be top of the
list. A close second for Daniel and I is a big medium-rare steak with chips and
salad. Lyn's is fish, but I think she is just taking the wee-wee's at the
boys hunter/gatherer attempts at fishing. On that front I think our record
looks okay!! one flying fish, one mackeral and one Atlantic Boobie [if we caught
two of them would that make a pair??] No disrespect to our resident chef Lyn who
has kept us very well fed. Originally we had planned to fit a marine BBQ to the
boat in La Rochelle. That is until we realied that the French do not do BBQ and
looked at us blankly when asking for one for our boat that was "all
plate", so we went without.
Thanks to everyone who has contacted us, it is
great to hear about what is going on in the real world.
The past 2 days have been beautiful clear skies and
we have forgotten what it is like to be cold. We have a breeze behind us at
14-15 knots and gusting to 18 knots. The seas have finally settled so the
sailing is very comfortable. We are sailing with just our jib and hoping
that the wind hangs in there for another 4 days. Not much to ask? Here we come
Antigua, 470NM to go.
Regards to all.
Andrew.
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