Position 15:00.00N 54:00.00W
PASSEPARTOUT
Christopher & Nirit Slaney
Wed 5 Jan 2011 18:32
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All round numbers for today's position and we've opened
a book club!
In one of the bars at the Queensway Bay marina in
Gibraltar I met a professional yacht captain from St Lucia who was getting ready
for his fifth Atlantic crossing.
"So, do you have any advice?" I asked him.
"Make sure you've good plenty to read and enjoy the
ride," was his reply.
Until today, fourteen days since leaving Mindelo, I
thought perhaps I hadn't understood him correctly; none of us has hardly
had time to read. This despite having a good selection of books covering
everything from sail handling to best selling fiction in two
languages. Shmulik has been plodding through 'The corrections' by
Jonathan Frantzen, Gabriella has been falling asleep while turning
pages of a Meir Shalev novel, and so on. Only Nirit seems to
have been able to finish a volume; 'Incendiary', by Chris
Cleave.
But today, after a very slow night in fickle
winds, we flew both headsails in an attempt to get closer to
the eventual course to St Lucia. Unlike previous attempts to use
this sail plan, today I decided to see if the autohelm would do a better
job that a pair of hands and eyes. It works! After some
fine tuning of the rig we have found a angle that 'Ray', (our
autohelm) feels comfortable with and he's been a steady hand on the wheel for
almost ten hours.
As a result, daytime steering watches have been
cancelled and all of a sudden we have time on our hands. The books are out and
all eyes down. Me? I have Jules Verne's "Around the world in eighty
days" and am renewing my acquaintance with our yacht's
namesake.
Tel +870 773 156 537 Follow us at http://blog.mailasail.com/psp2
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