11.17N 074.36W 16th June 2011
Mojo 2
Andrew Partington
Thu 16 Jun 2011 14:03
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Writing the blog is causing me real pain today. I
have had some discomfort in my upper back for a couple of weeks but now it feels
like it is jammed solid. Fat lot of use it is having a physiotherapist aboard
when you are the physiotherapist.
I have bent it, twisted it and even taught Daniel
how to manipulate a spine but it still wont budge. I'm sure it will settle in a
couple of days so I will stop complaining!
Another amazing day. As I wrote yesterday the wind
was very light in the morning but it picked up just after I finished the
blog. Initially we had the full mainsail and geneker but this soon changed to
the headsail and full main, as the wind hit 17 knots. By lunchtime we had reefed
the mainsail and eventually did away with the headsail altogether as the wind
approached 24-25 knots. By evening we were again trying to cope with wind
gusting to 27 knots and a large following sea.
As we passed Santa Marta on the Columbian coast at
around 5AM to wind dropped out to 10 knots and, despite a half hour
burst of 22 knots at around 7AM, the wind has now disappeared and is
blowing at a meagre 6 knots, at 90 degrees to port.
For most of the day and night we remained fairly
close to the Columbian coast. At dusk we witnessed a massive electrical storm
over the mainland which seemed to stretch for miles. An amazing display but we
were happy to happy to watch from a distance. We have passed several ships but
not seen one drug runner!!
It seemed like for most of the daylight hours
yesterday we had the company of dolphins. We came across several pods who all
wanted to spend time surfing with us. At one point we had around 20 dolphins all
around us. Robert was sitting right at the
front of the starboard hull with his legs dangling either side of the bow, when
a dolphin broke the surface and brushed along his foot. He was vey
excited.
One species we saw were huge compared to the
dolphins we see at home. They were at least 7 foot long and very large with it.
They were far more acrobatic than the others we have seen. One decided to
do a flip in front of the boat and only missed landing on our starboard bow
by about 2 feet. Not sure if it was showing off or just made a
miscalculation.
We have settled into the routine of sleep, eat,
watch and sleep again. This cycle has no real pattern to it. When you feel tired
you sleep because you never really know when your next chance will come along.
Right now Daniel is asleep on the lounge after his watch from 5AM until 8AM and
Robert has been asleep in his cabin for several hours after a long 1AM to 5AM
watch. Mealtimes are more regular with lunch at around midday [surprisingly!!]
and an evening meal at around 6PM so that we have time to clean up before dark.
In 24 hours we have made another 140N. We have
covered 280NM since leaving Aruba and have a similar distance to go to make
it to the San Blas Islands. If the wind disappears we may have to crank up the
engines to get us there.
Andrew
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