Boisterous Biscay
Quivira2
Tue 4 Jun 2019 16:15
Hello dear readers. Sorry to keep you waiting but we've had a busy day sail setting. Currently 3 reefs in the mainsail, bowling along in 24kts apparent wind.
Noon run 160nm. But what a place this is! Shortly after I came on watch at 2100 yesterday evening we had a spell of strong wind. Then at the end of the watch at midnight I was struggling to sail the boat in heavy rain, light airs, only 1.8 kts boat speed, and confused seas. However things got better. The expected steady F5 NW wind materialised during the night and we've had a good run today trundling down towards the Azores at 7-8 knots. Colin and Becky Campbell in Zephyr have been constant companions about 6nm miles away on the AIS. According to the grib this wind will stay with us for several days and put 500nm under our belts - we hope!
The system of 3-hour night watches is working well. Mike does 1800-2100, 0000-0300, and 0600-0900. I fill in the gaps. Then we're both of us day-workers.
Meals are settling down into a routine. Breakfast at 0900 when Mike comes off the last night watch - bacon for him; cereal and meusli bar for me. Soup and a roll for lunch, with fruit for afters. We've used up the home-cooked meals so tonight Mike is making a M&S curry with rice.
Hope to post something on a regular basis from now on - weather permitting. We don't have a fixed satcom installation so to make a post the satphone need to come out of its bag, the external antenna rigged on the sprayhood frame, the RedBox router fetched from the locker and placed somewhere within reach of a 12V outlet where it's not going to be thrown around. Then the whole lot dismantled afterwards. Hey ho!