Day 13 | Unlucky for some...
Theiaoflondon
Sat 8 Dec 2018 16:07
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15 06.2N 053 49.8W@ 1300UT 8/12/2018
Daily Run: 185nm
Tune of the day: "Rolling in the Deep"
by Adele
Day 13...
Thirteen is Mark's 'lucky' number. However, the
day didn't start particularly well for him as he got drenched in a large squall
that came past us during his watch. His daily prank involving early
morning crew revile with Christmas music were then thwarted by Ben who
appears to have worked out how to remotely disconnect Mark's iphone from the
Bose bluetooth speaker and the Sonos system installed on board. Noddy
Holder was denied his annual royalty on this occasion in favour of "Flat Beat"
by Mr Oizo. It appears that a smart use of technology has neutralised
Mark's well-meaning, but often unwelcome, desire to share his eclectic tastes in
music, bringing welcome relief the other crew members.
Talking of welcome relief, Saturday appears to have
turned into personal hygiene day. Mark's shower via nature this
morning inspired Ben and Iain to both have showers (not together) and the smell
of Old Spice is below decks is a refreshing change from the smell of sweat and
body odor. Minkey remains devoted to his daily ablutions so no fanfare
there and even Mike has started to follow suit with a shower and
clothes change combo. Iain continues to receive daily house-training
guidance from Minkey - today there was instruction on the need to
replace toilet roll when it runs out.
We continue to make steady, if not particularly speedy,
progress towards St Lucia. Our main sail is now completely out of
action as the boom and vang fixing bolts are now at the point where we can
no-longer manage the situation if the damage progresses any
further. Prince, now 'formerly know as' is ot of action,
the wind is too strong for our Gennaker sail and the other other spinnaker
sails we have on board are proving to be too large for a small 5-man crew to
handle. So, with 420 miles to go, and Iain running low on Aruldite
and dyneema rope, we will complete this race on twin headsails only - an
entirely dependable, steady, sail plan, but just not one which will get us to
St. Lucia as quickly as we would like. On the positive side, the wind
remains reasonably consistent and we have a good sailing angle towards the
finish line.
Iain was offered the opportunity to play with the sextant today. This
initially led to a moment of terror for him until we explained that a
sextant is a nautical navigation instrument, rather than anything more
sinister, as the instrument's name might suggest. Once we were able to
reassure Iain and get him to put the boathook down, he has now helped
achieved another first by helping take his first ever morning sun sight.
Hopefully his efforts will be rewarded later by Ben and Mark, after several
hours of calculations, being able to confirm that we are still somewhere in the
North Atlantic, heading West.
Sailing conditions went very light for several hours
during the dark hours and we all endured frustrating watches as Theia was
rocked from port to starboard through out the night, driving her crew insane
and denying them precious sleep. Life below decks is pretty unbearable now
too. We have mess everywhere, anything that is now strapped down is
sliding from one side of the yacht to the other and then back again. To make
matters worse, the heat down below is rising constantly as we continue to move
down and west. We are all, therefore, a little bit weary.
Mike is also on mother watch today, which naturally makes us all
apprehensive. Our fresh food supplies are running a bit low and cooking is
now becoming a little more experimental in order to keep things interesting,
which carries inherent risks. Mike's infamous combination of potato,
spinach and bacteria, tends to bring back some unwelcome memories.... More to
follow tomorrow. Theia Crew
Today's "firsts" for Iain
- Using the sextant
Daily Stats
Max boat speed: 13.6kts
Dolphins spotted: 0
Whales Spotted: 0
Gybes: 0
Flying Fish on deck: 0
Buckets of vomit:
0
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