36.48:18N 040.56:93W
Tioram 4
Tina & Tony
Sun 23 May 2010 17:01
|
Date 23 May Time 11:38 boat time
Distance to go to Horta 586 miles
Hello from Tioram
Sunday morning is very peaceful here on Tioram.
Tina is on the wheel and all except your correspondent are in bed. We wish this
was as a result of a wild party the night before but alas no, although we did
treat ourselves to a beer for passing the 700 mile mark to wash down John's tuna
pasta bake.
The weather continued fair yesterday with a SSW
wind F4 which means we had the spinney up all the time. Skipper comments
that it is his longest time with the Kite up ever as he usually has to take it
down in an hour in the Solent. As a result, despite the mild winds, we flew
along making short work of the distance to go and life was easy with a
relatively flat boat. After dinner skipper decided to take the spiney down as
flying them at night is always frought with trouble. They have a funny knack of
wrapping themselves around anthing they can find and making it difficult to get
down A text book spinney drop was excuted at 7:00pm and we poled out the genoa
for our night-time rig. This dropped our speed somewhat but we still managed
over 5 knots broadly in the right direction.
However the sky clouded over and therefore
we had no moon for the first time in several days. At the watch change at
midnight Tina and John went on watch. They now have further complaints for as as
soon as the "lads" watch went to bed it rained, drizzled and rained again so as
Tina and John have now got wet 5 times with the other watch seeing no
rain, they have been christened the "wet watch". This resulted in them being
allowed to play silly word games on watch as there was nothing to see and very
little to do other than get wet.
The last forecast we downloaded showed that we
were in for a wind change early Sunday and sure enough at 7:00 am the wind went
NE and picked up to F6. That's about 25 knots. This required rapid reefing down
to reef 3 and heading off our course for an easy ride. All stayed up for an hour
to watch the waves increase in height but after a couple of hours the wind
moderated to F5. We expect the wind in this direction for about a day and then
the forecast has it backing to SW for our final few days into Horta. At the
current rate it should be Thursday when we get close to Horta.
Life on board is progressing well. Food remains a
very active source of amusement and conversation. Having kick started James in
the galley, he is now in the running for the chef of the voyage award. His
offering last night was panacakes again! As this was only sampled by the
lads watch, it may not be allowed as an entry in the competition. As its Tina's
birthday on Tuesday and we still have cake mix on board there has been some
discussion about whether James will launch a bid for the prize with yet another
cake.
Your correspondent has to report that strange
happenings appear to be taking place on Tioram. During the windy watch change
there was the inevitable scrabble for bits of clothing to get on deck quickly.
Once all crew were on deck T&T were heard to have a conversation about the
possibility that Tony was wearing certain items of Tina's wardrobe. Enough said
but rumours could apread!
Skippess Tina continues to look after the
welfare of the crew with zeal. If a crew member appears tired or not on top from
they are given additional sleep hours. Galley hygiene is at its usual high and
safety still top of the agenda.
As the boat has been in seas for a few days now and
we have been unable to open the hatches, things are getting a bit earthy
especially in John's and Malte's cabin. Exactly what is causing this Mal
de Odour has not yet been identified but the hunt is on before Matron takes a
hand. We will let you know when things improve.
Well this is probably too much information but what
else do you talk about when nothing happens.
Tina wins the Ula prize for sevices to steering as
she has steered many hours while others rested including
your correspondent.
Cheers from a windy and rocky
Tioram
|