Fancy that
Rik
Wed 29 Nov 2023 14:11
The terms “gybe” and “tack” can be used to refer to the actual turns, i.e. a downwind turn through the wind is a gybe and upwind is a tack, but it can also refer to the sailing between turns, for example “we are on a port gybe“ means we are sailing downwind and the wind is coming from our port side. “We are on a starboard tack” means we are sailing upwind and the wind is coming from the starboard side.
Yesterday we needed to get a little more south to stay in the stronger winds and to enable us to point straight at Grenada on our next gybe. It was the first time for a while that we’d sailed on a port gybe for any length of time in the daytime and it was very noticeable by our exposure to the sun. As the sun comes round on a starboard gybe the spinnaker puts most of the boat in the shade keeping us all nice and cool. Not so on port, it was a lovely sunny day and every was soon looking for shade. I personally got very hot feet !
Early this morning we saw a 33m boat called “Fancy” pop up on AIS. A quick click and we could see it was a large sail boat and it was going fast, about twice the speed that we were in fact. As the dawn broke we could physically see her approaching from our port quarter. The French yacht called us on VHF for a chat and told us they were heading for Guadeloupe. We agreed to take photos of each others boats and exchange them by email.
This is the picture we sent them
This is the picture they sent us
Bless them they tried !!
So the big question on Moose is still, when will we arrive in Grenada. No end of calculations have been done. We have just under 600 miles to go and we are averaging 6.2 knots so far today. So on that info alone a suggested arrival time would be about 9:30 on the 3rd. However there are many variables, both wind direction and strength will affect us, ideally we would like the wind to be ENE 17-18 knots but the forecast is for 10-18. We also go slower at night than we do during the day with the Spinnaker.
Current crew wagers are all for the 3rd which just happens to be Kath’s birthday!!
Rik 15:00
Dicky 12:30
Caroline 14:30
Kath 16:30
John 13:00
Nick 12:00
Any sailors out there, WhatsApp me with your guess and if you get it right I owe you a 🍺
Someone asked about “blackening”, it’s a Caribbean mix of spices that can be rubbed in to fish or chicken before cooking, it’s hot and spicy and absolutely delicious !!
Yesterday I mentioned Caroline’s baking skills and what a treat having fresh bread was. Today, I have a picture !
