Tue 1st December 09 18.30N 40.40.W
Ca Canny
Tue 1 Dec 2009 13:13
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Hello Everybody,
We are still in the running.
I never thought there would be anything to report.
I must say that yesterday, I started to appreciate
the effort of cooking in the galley.
Paul has been cooking everyday bar one evening that
Alan cooked and me giving it a go last night.
With all the windows and hatches open, I couldn't
get the water to cook, so I closed everything. It started to get very hot, I
started to sweat and feel sick. Ate my own conconction which only made it worse.
Funny, the 2 times I ate something with tomato
sauce, past and garlic, I get seasick.
So I end up on the foredeck to get fresh air and
feel better.
I notice 4 little holes in the bottom of the
parasailer. It was 19.00 hours.
Next thing, we put up the foresail, parasail down,
wash the sail, tape the holes.
By this time, it is dark, the wind has
increased to over 20 knots.
So we leave the genoa up for the rest of the night.
We keep having the same speeds as with he parasail,
unbeleavable.
Paul has a rough night with windspeeds up to
28 knots and swells up 5 to 6 meters. With the boat dissapearing
in the troughs.
In the morning, we changed back to the
parasail. We are getting slick at it, just in 15 minutes without any
glitses.
After this, I got my head down again. Jai is
sitting in the driving seat. /We are running on windvane autopilot.
Paul is reading his Dick Frances and skipper is on the SSB listening
for info and messages.
While we where changing the sails we got a phone
call from John on Amazing Grace.
Paul took the phone. We agreed to
communicate further over the SSB at the agreed time: 18.00 hours to hear
more.
So how is our day structured and who does
what. The central point in the day is the 12.00 position transfer to Cowes in
England. At this time, I usually start writing something for
the blogg. Paul starts to prepare something for lunch. Jamie sits in
the driving seat on duty, listening to music and Alan is listening to
the daily messages from the other boats.
What other duties are there.
Paul takes very well care of the meals, the
remaining provision. The dishes are done by the other
crew.
After our evening meal and the disches, the laptop
is installed on the outside table, The Hustle series is viewed, 2 episodes
each night. Skipper usually goes for a few hours of sleep. Jamie
starts with the first watch at 19.00 till 22.00 hours. Paul continues till
01.00.
Then Alan takes over till 04.00, then its my
turn till 07.00 after which Jamie continues.
We complete the log book at every watch
shift.
During the first few days we still had things to
sort out like the water maker, etc.
Now the main concern is to preserve the parasail so
we can finish in style and without a huge bill. The other constance is
the energy balance. The batteries are depleting rapidly.
So we have the solar panel on the canopy, the
generator and we run the engines to top up the batteries.
Now in the afternoon, we have no major shores, so
we try to catch up on sleep, read a bit or Paul & Jamie play cards. The time
flies by very fast.
We are going to have this kind of weather for the
next 5 days. relatively big swells, wind 15 to 20 knots. Last night we wrote
down our ETA for a bet. (Estimated Arrival Times)
We have past this morning the 1200 miles to
go.
The Grib files show more conservative
winds.
We basicallygo with the flo of the tradewinds and
currents.
We have send photo's on 2 consecutive days. the
first time 4 and the second time 7.
So they should all be
available Tine.
I was glad to hear you had a reasonable day
yesterday. Think of you working away.
I am so gratefull for this experience of a
lifetime.
Hi Zoe,
Hope you're enjoyning your last few days in school
before your holidays.
Looking forward to see you and mum a week on
saturday in St Lucia.
Hi from Jamie. I just clocked my highest SOG of
18.6 knots.(Speed Over Ground)
Hi papa Larry,
Wish you and Mary where here with your canoe, for
us to try and keep up with you.
Everyone has been thorougly sick, so you don't have
to ask again. It doesn't last very long though. We all have sealegs now and
everything rocks and rolls with the boat.
Hi Isobel,
I making sure there is plenty of fish to
catch when you come. We are going to fast anyway to haul them is.
Dad
From the SSB position messages, we find out that we
are ahead of a lot of boats and distances which baffle us.
We only want to be and stay safe on our passage. We
are not pushing the limits, just to reassure everyone.
Yes, I've not mentioned washing. We are taking a
shower twice a week whether we need or not. But the last shower Paul took, he
stuck to the side like velcro, so it was deemed necessary.
So I'll send this off for today.
Marc
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