South of Madeira at Last 31:30.270N 13:29.095W
Shaya Moya
Don & Susan Smyth
Sun 7 Nov 2010 13:51
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The last 24 hours have been much better than
yesterday's. We did 177nm midday to midday and are now only 215nm from Las
Palmas, all going well we should be there tomorrow evening.
We can put the good time today on two aspects of
the day, the first being the guys wanting to fly the spinnaker, and the second
being the wind piping up in the evening for some fast sailing.
Flying the spinnaker was a lot of fun, not least of
all putting it up back to front at first. We took a while to work that out then
Martin noticed a red ribbon of tape running down the luff(which was now the
leech) For those non sailors it meant that we were flying it back to front. No
problem down it came got sorted with the correct ropes and back up she went.
What a beautiful sight, Sue's design is awesome. Reece couldn't get over it and
now wants to fly the spinnaker in all winds!
We literally flew down wind doing 10kts under total
control. What an exhillerating ride. Shaya Moya was in her element, almost
surfing on the swells. We were able to keep this up for 3 hours right up to
sunset. Thats when an amazing sighting happened, we can still not quite believe
what we saw.
 
The succesful pair
Reece mesmerised
Imagine the scene, sun going down, spinnaker
pulling us toward our goal, the hiss of the sea surging under the hull. Fabulous
stuff. Suddenly out of nowhere appears a bird, a seabird of sorts we imagine.
 
What is it?
An
Owl?
What a surprise, we are not sure if we have the
right identification but it certainly looks like an OWL, possibly a snowey owl?
If anyone can identify it we would be greatful. It must have been blown out to
sea. With no land within a three hundred kilometre radius it was looking
for a place to rest. Every time it came in to land somewhere the spinnaker would
frighten it off. We quickly dropped the spinnaker, but by this time it was
almost dark and the owl never returned. We will always wonder where it went? Is
not nature wonderful.
Not
Sure about
this! Sunrise
after the rain
We are now broad reaching with genoa and main at
8-9kts in a north easterly F5(40km/h) wind, sun shining, 22 deg C, after a night
and morning of rain squalls. Finally shorts weather.
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