Thursday 24th November
Nowcrew
Thu 24 Nov 2005 16:32
DAY 4 - Mid Day
Position 23/11/05
The wind was back
with vengeance during the night. It built slowly from 10.00pm onwards and by
2.00am Wednesday morning we were flying along.
Most of the crew had
been thrown out of their bunks at some stage during the night as the skipper
pushed the boat to it's limits to catch up on the lack of wind during the
previous two days.Doing anything on the boat when it is healed over at
speed is difficult so even Toms bacon butties at breakfast were getting thrown
all over the place.
Safety is key when
we are in higher winds so most of us wore our lifejackets and mobilerts
throughout the day, with the exception of Chaz of course who could not find the
time to put his on between eating, I don't know how you keep up with him
Sue!
The winds built
further throughout the day and there were a lot of running repairs to do as the
boat was pushed harder and harder. It was not long before we had Chaz work off
his breakfast and sent him out on the boom to attach a loose sail cover tie that
was flapping about.
Skipper had received
a message that we were doing better than he had expected in the fleet which just
made him more and more determined to push the boat harder and
harder.
Lunch was a goats
cheese salad and freshly baked bread that Andy had made in the bread maker that
morning. The smell of fresh bread was very welcome after such a rough night but
still a few of the crew could not face lunch because of the choppy sea's. Guess
who had seconds and a third helping though? Yes Chaz!
We had been
listening to the SSB radio to get our regular updates on the rest of the fleet.
Although our reception is good we have not been able to transmit however which
is a little frustrating. We still have the Sat Phone and e-mail
however.
As the afternoon
wore on the winds were beginning to drop again. Although this allowed a little
rest bite for everyone it did slow the boat down considerably and as the sun
went down our speed was down to 4 knots and we were in for a
frustrating night with the weather.
More Now crew
updates tomorrow.