10/12/07

13:00

The furling foil of the yankee has come apart at a joint about 5-6 meters off the deck. This became obvious when we were about to unfurl a few turns on the yankee.  We then had to open the sail fully (after first going down wind) and it rapidly developed a 2 foot horizontal tear at the point of the separation.  We made the spinnaker halyard off tight to the stem head fitting and winched Sotiris up on the pole lift while being clipped to the spinnaker halyard.  This allowed him to ride up on the same angle as the furler.  We released the yankee halyard which was pulling the extrusions apart and Sotiris managed to slide the two pieces of extrusion together. The original jointing device is not there at the moment but by putting several turns on the furler –effectively reefing the sail—we are able to continue. We will not risk putting full tension on the halyard but the sail seems to set okay.  The staysail is now fully set, the wind has obliged by going ESE for a bit, boat speed is back up over 8 knots and the whole exercise took about 35 minutes.  I bang off a couple of quick e-mails to try to organize the parts we might need.

Sotiris starts a major fry up for his midday meal. Spicy sausage, cheese, potatoes,  eggs etc etc.  I naturally assume he has eschewed last night’s leftovers but I am wrong.  He is making a personal sacrifice as by not having last night’s Cottage Pie there will be enough for the rest of us to eat it again tonight without more cooking.  He offered me a small portion and I had to admit it was delicious, even if a heart attack on a plate.

We have now completed out first full week and have covered 1361 miles averaging 194/day.  Look out Rio here we come.

11:30

Earlier this evening I had a shower as I do most early evenings.  On Moody 64s the Day Head and the  owner’s cabin showers are located on the  Starboard side of the boat and when the boat is on the port tack there is no way  the showers will drain.  As it was the half way party I wanted to make an effort so I had a shower  and cleared most of it with the aid of a large sponge.  Soon after it was decided to put the boat on the opposite tack for a few minutes to try to clear the bilges and maybe stop the wretched  bilge alarm. This of course emptied my shower tray completely.

The port side  double guest cabin shower will drain on the port tack but it’s out of use as it’s filled with  suvrival suiits and  spare  emergency drinking water.

At 7:30 I offered Sotiris  a celebratory glass of wine but he declined  saying it was too early to drink wine.  This from a man who will have a beer at 10 in the morning. I then offered  a glass to Steve who declined  saying he wanted to remain tea total for this trip to give his liver a rest.  So it was down to Nik and I to have a couple of glasses of wine, and very nice they were to.

It turns out Sotiris’ food sacrifice came to naught as the Cottage Pie had to be bulked out considerably with brown rice, spinach and green beans in order to feed the three of us.

Two  cargo ships approached and again Sotiris  jumped on the VHF and this time was rewarded with a babble of  Greek which went on for some time, after which we spoke in English of life and art for an hour or so.

11/12/07 Midday

The wind went SSE last night so we have to give back some of the Easting we had in the wind bank.  The bilge alarm only went off a couple of times, and apart from that everything is quiet.

Niks’ parents will be glad to know he’s taking his economics revision very seriously.  I enclose a snap taken a few days ago of him hard at work…he wouldn’t be in that part of the boat in this wind direction.

Also a snap of the stowaway. And a few others of the Yankee damage.

I couldn’t send any pictures yesterday as the Fleet 33 Satellite system was in a mood.  When we were off the coast of Africa I had to select AORW (Atlantic Ocean Region West) now that we’re off the coast of South America, I have to select AORE (Atlantic Ocean Region East) it took me a while to bow to that logic.

Noon to noon run 200 miles. Just over 1200 to go.