Yacht Pi Squared - ARC Blog

Mustique
Fin McGurran
Mon 10 Dec 2007 18:19
Day "We don't know what day it is anymore ..."
 
It has been more than two weeks here on Pi Squared, we often lose track of time - unless we are about to come off watch, then we know exactly what time it is, down to the last second!
 
We are still experiencing large swells making for interesting sailing, especially in the middle of the night with no moon to light the way. Flying along at 9/10 knots, you may as well have your eyes closed, several of us do! The white tops of the breaking waves are clearly visible, especially when a large wave breaks right next to the boat. We discovered that shouting "big wave, big wave" from the helm doesn't make the wave go away, and the being the driver, means that you can't run away from it! another lesson we have learned is to not look behind, it is better not to see that waves rising higher than the boat before they pick you up and carry you forward on the surf.
 
Fin is cooking our last proper meal, 3 bean and chorizo stew and fresh bread. We decided to help him along and salt the potatoes. Jonny was at the helm and a big wave tipped the boat over causing salt water to rush in the galley windows (accompanied by shrieks from the naughty crew up top) and soak Fin's potatoes ... unfortunately, it also soaked his bread mix and knocked a full kettle into the cupboard where we store our kitchen utensils - oops. Fin came to the companion way, spatula in hand, shouting "*!&$ {CHANGE TO AT} *! behave" - is the first sense of humour failure we have witnessed, must have been bad!
 
We have been getting rained on a lot recently, it just doesn't seem to end - the sky is an "orrible" off white colour with no discernable clouds and certainly no blue sky to be seen! The night shifts were particularly bad and we were happy to see daylight again! The weather cleared this afternoon and Pi Squared turned into the gypsy boat with all of our wet sailing gear hanging up along the boom ... hopefully we will get the stuff dried before the rain starts again.
 
We are now pointing directly towards St Lucia, hope to get there by Friday, weather permitting, we are all getting quite excited about arriving and having some good food and a few rums although there is a general consensus that after 3 weeks at sea we won't last very long!
 
More tomorrow ...