AZAB Day 2 Mon 3rd June - settling in
Nutmeg of Shoreham
Ollie Holden
Mon 3 Jun 2019 17:37
A much better day today. The night was straightforward - no manoeuvres, so after E went to bed at midnight I also put my head down and apart from getting up every 45 mins or so to check around, I slept soundly all night. I had the AIS alarm active but there wasn't a lot of traffic about. I slept through to about 0830, and both E and I got up. E devoured a huge bacon and scrambled egg baguette, so she's definitely feeling better! Overnight breeze was just fine - a bit light but it was nice to have an easy motion and not crawl around on hands and knees like I've had to the last 24 hrs.
Had a nice chat to Ertan again on SSB this morning, we had both been following a starboard tack into Biscay, but I tacked out at 0630 when the wind shifted a little. I've picked up Milou, Saffier, and Boogie Nights on the AIS sporadically, which is reassuring to know that (a) we're not 100s of miles behind; (b) we're broadly heading in the right direction! Ertan mentioned three boats have already retired, which is a shame - perhaps we were not the only ones to feel the anxiety.
The wind has been a bit fickle, and a couple of times has dropped right off to almost nothing. A small weather cell came over - big curved cloud bank which shifted the wind and then left a wind hole behind it. Luckily this coincided with a large school of dolphins coming to join us - fantastic! Including a couple of really small babies, swimming close to their mothers at all times. And a show-off (I guess it must be a teenager) who leapt out of the water and smacked his tail fin sideways on the surface.
Emilia is also devouring books - each one is lasting about 3 hrs so she will run out pretty soon, so I have promised her we will intersperse with some GCSE curriculum, which she's thrilled about (not). She definitely has her appetite back - we've just had cheesy nachos and the order is in for chilli con carne for supper.
I think we're both feeling a lot more aligned / "at one" with what we've embarked on. It is always going to be mega-stressy starting a race like this, especially sailing straight into some heavy weather; we've been hard on the wind since the Lizard and having the first 3 days beating to windward is not what anyone would ideally choose - but it is the nature of the beast - we are sailing 1200 miles straight out into the Atlantic so you've got to expect to sail through some low pressure systems and spend a bunch of time going upwind. I am hoping the wind and sea state stays OK for the next few days.
Nutmeg seems to be doing OK, the one small niggle is with the steering which was making some interesting noises, and I found that the bearing at the top of the rudder post was moving slightly. I managed to tighten it all up (lying upside down on the aft deck with my head in the aft locker with a stream of seawater running over me) and will keep an eye on it. I might strengthen it when I get to the Azores. Also the Aries windvane is moving around again - I dont seem to be able to stop it from wobbling on its brackets - but it is steering Nutmeg well at the moment so I am not complaining. We only ran the engine to charge the batteries today - most of our power over the last two days has been covered by the wind generator.
I am hoping at some point it will get warmer. I haven't taken my foul weather gear off since we left - we're regularly getting lumps of water into the cockpit, which is most unsociable, and at night it's positively cold. I am sleeping in the saloon in all my gear at the moment. My big treat to myself, when we get further south and hopefully into some calmer seas, is to sleep in the forecabin under a duvet - total luxury!