Fw: Nearly there! N36. 28. 98. W39. 23. 61.
Moya
Doug Smith
Thu 24 May 2012 17:05
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----- Original Message -----
From: Doug Smith
To: Web Diary
Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2012 3:44 PM
Subject: Nearly there! N36. 28. 98. W39. 23. 61. Our Position is N36. 28. 98. W39. 23. 61. at noon
UTC on Thursday 24th May.
As you are following the saga, just to letyou know
we survived the 40 knot winds! We had a day and a night of a super
sleigh ride with the wind on our port quarter travelling between 6 and 8
knots - terrifying! but it made some mileage. A day and a night with a
single reef in both the main and the mizzen and only one headsail (we
normally try to carry three) We would skip along at six knots, lift
on a wave to seven knots, run down the back of it at 8 knots, then slam
into the front of the next wave, instantly knocking us back to six
knots again. There was no escape, as even off watch the rising scream
of the turning prop shaft, free spinning in the water, let you know we were
about to hit another wall of water. I worried about the rig, weighing up
the pressure we were forcing upon it with the stop start motion of thirty tons
riding down hill, balanced against the danger of reducing sail yet further
and of us slowing us down and placing ourselves at the mercy of
the 9 metre (according to Frank) Atlantic rollers that were building beneath us,
with nothing to check their progress for a thousand miles. The only person
who really enjoyed it was Rick, whose hopes of a Saturday night out in Horta
were raising by the minute. As we approached the second evening, the wind
suddenly faltered, changed direction and dropped. We were back to 3 knots,
in a big swell, with Saturday night out of the question and a much relieved
Doug.
We are now only 530 miles from the Azores, in
the Azores High - with no wind - and motoring at 5 knots toward target. I
am a little more confident about our fuel supply as I reckon we have a range
shortfall of only 150 miles - so we still need the wind to come back - but its a
gamble. The benefit is that the platform is reasonably stable at last,
which draws our thoughts toward the hopefully rapid turn around in Horta - and
those of Dave toward booking his flight home. He really has been an
excellent chef and chief fixer, so I can forgive him for constantly re-arranging
my carefully thought out stowage plans whilst maintaining the new locations
carefully in his head!
Our second toilet - currently the only one that
works - failed yesterday but Dave, clad in marigolds (as well as his other
attire!) managed to fix that too. We had prepared against failure by Rick
making a very binding lunch of macaroni cheese
but luckily we have not had to test out the theory.
Frank is busy taking additional readings from the
GPS to compare against the chart and prove that we have actually travelled
further than our instrumentation is telling us. He is nearly ready to take
on Garmin and the entire Geo-Nav structure when he gets home, I just hope
he does not invest his life savings in the project - and write the theory off to
wishful thinking - in the meantime I am trying to divert his energies toward
fixing our tiller-pilot and compass light where a more immediate impact might be
felt.
For the last two days we have been navigating
amongst fleets of Portuguese Men of War - they look like discarded paper cups
from previous voyagers, but hopefully they are taking their sting toward the
American continent rather than our own British beaches -or have I been trained
to say European? This morning I spotted fountains of water about half a
mile away on our port beam and was able to shout "Thaar she blows" This
raised both watches who confirmed I had seen my first Whale! The
Whale I had seen surfaced briefly, then vanished, but what an impressive
sight. There were several others about a mile astern but they did not stay
long and soon we were left alone again in our Ocean. We are also getting
Dolphin visits almost daily but they appear to be much smaller than the ones we
see off our own North West coast, but perhaps they will grow! We are also in ice
berg territory - there was one spotted here not long ago according to the
chart. Richard sees the advantages toward a gin and tonic but I'm thinking
of the anniversary of another steel ship, one hundred years ago, and asking the
deck watch to maintain a close look out despite the empty sea that surrounds
us.
Well, we motor on. Food supplies holding up
well and Frank, as our lunch time chef, is training for evening duties on Dave's
departure. As for water usage, we are on our last tank despite
restrictions but should be ok for another week. I did catch one of our
number washing his smalls, very commendable normally, but when there is none
left to drink, if we haven't reached Horta, thats the end of this blog,
so soon put a stop to that. You can imagine how delightful it is
in here, little ventilation in the rough patches and five men living in close
contact, none of whom have had a shower for three weeks!
All for now - lets hope the next one comes from
Horta, if there still is such a thing as dry land.
Doug.
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