Sunny Trade Wind Sailing
Ostra on the ARC again in 2016
Ritchie Gatt
Sat 29 Nov 2014 17:22
Position 1200 UTC +0100hrs 29th November 20:49.00 N 27:12.00
W 1966 miles to go. (I might have got the date wrong in
yesterdays position)
Well some of you may be picturing us here in the blazing tropical sunshine
sailing downwind and not having had to trim a sheet for a few days.
Unfortunately that’s not quite how its worked out and for most of the last 3
days its been quite cloudy (although it is warm). As for the trade wind
bit, that’s not really happened either and for the past couple of days the wind
has been mainly forward of the beam and if the saying about true gentleman never
sailing to windward then there’s definitely no true gentlemen on this
boat. This morning has been a constant series of reefs and shake outs and
course alterations as we’ve followed the wind from single figures to 30 knots in
the space of a few minutes. We’re not complaining though. I mentioned in
an earlier post that the normal advice is to sail south until the butter melts
before turning west. Well they don’t tell you whether to use salted or
unsalted but we did pick up on the need to take it out of the fridge for that
plan to work. So far it hasn’t melted but it has gone off!!! We need
a plan B. Yesterday we nearly caught an unexpected catch with our fishing
line. There was a small bird and a seagull which flew past and the seagull
decided that our lure just under the surface behind the boat represented a
hearty meal. It began swooping to catch it as we hurriedly wound it in to
avoid any mishaps. This morning another fish was caught though and it was
enormous. Well it would be as it got away complete with the hook. We
also saw some flying fish which make quite a sight. We ate heartily
yesterday with Phil's signature dish of sausage casserole. We rounded off
the evening with a few quiz questions that people had given us to take with us
so a bit thank you to all those who did. Anthony won first prize in one
competition and Ritchie first prize in the quiz. Today is Saturday and
we’re just planning our Sunday with important questions to be decided
upon. Do we have our roast dinner at lunchtime or in the evening and which
Sunday paper shall we order for tomorrow. One very good point is that the
bunches of bananas hanging on deck are starting to ripen and taste very nice
indeed.. |