Day 10 - Motoring with the fishes
A year afloat: to the Caribbean and back
Sam and Alex Fortescue
Tue 30 Nov 2010 11:29
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16:04.03N
026:31.18W
The wind has dried up again, but this time, it was
bang on cue. We were expecting it to veer west and drop away to nothing, which
it obligingly did during my watch at about 5am. The motion of the boat, which
had started the night leaping from wave to wave with a keen rushing noise, ended
up wallowing listlessly. So, we donked up. Again.
The hope is that we're now motoring across a high
pressure system that is short and fat. At worst we may have to go a little over
100 miles to clear it as it slides northwards. Then, we'll be into the hallowed
trades. The latest gossip on the radio is that next week is going to be a
cracker, with moderate to strong trade winds - hopefully enough to waft us into
St Lucia on time. But Chris Tibbs, the ARC forecaster, has already promised jam
tomorrow, so we're trying not to get our hopes up. We're aiming for a point a
little south of 15N.
We've crossed a number of boats under power this
morning, all fanning out from Mindelo in the Cape Verdes. We spoke to the
skipper of Maracuja, a 43-footer, who had spent a day or so ashore going through
immigration formalities, refuelling the boat and getting stuck into pizza and a
beer - a fact our crew is envious of. He said there had been 50 ARC boats -
about quarter of the fleet - in Mindelo, and that refuelling had been 'a total
bunfight'. It looks as if our 'slide-on-by' strategy could be a good
one...
The day has dawned bright and hot, so we're airing
the boat and doing some cleaning as we trundle south. In a style we're becoming
accustomed to, William emerged blinking from his lair as the smell of a freshly
baked orange cake filled the galley. To be fair, heat from the engine soon
becomes a problem in the stern cabin.
Because the engine is churning away, the fridge
will be really cold today, so we're looking forward to a swim and a mid-Atlantic
beer this afternoon. It also gives us an opportunity to make extra water to wash
clothes and have 'showers'. We're also planning a fishing competition using
three different lures and lines. LAst time we put the mackerel feathers out on
the handline, we ended up snaring 4 cracking little dorado, which made a good
starter.
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