Friday 25/11/11  - Enigmas – 25:46.3N 025:40.1W

Getting into the rhythm of the passage now, and folk are feeling better as they manage to grab sleep when they can, and to enjoy the funny moments, the occasional sighting of yachts/ships and creatures of the deep, the accidents, and the quips. 

Weather and Progress

The wind was pretty good, and we made decent progress southwards if not always in the absolutely right direction (not enough west in it for Chris Tibbs – had to tell him we were doing our best). The seas were smooth enough to allow us to tackle and finish off the bodge job on the broken spinnaker pole. Having ground and shaped the remnants of the cracked aluminium casting yesterday, and epoxied it into the plastic collar, we needed to drill and tap it to secure it more positively, and to put cross bolts into the new fitting to ensure that the now shoulder-less casting cannot slip up inside the pole. Finished it, and we are optimistic that it will do a good job, but we managed brilliantly with the Parasailor and then with the twin foresails using our other good pole, so we will wait till we really need it before trying it out. We have seen a number of yachts heading southwards, but often they are sailing at an oblique angle to our own and not towards the position we are targeting (maybe they have it right and us wrong?). Having kicked this around, the common feature seems to be that they are not using dedicated downwind rigs, and need to shape a less optimal course. This may well be a false conclusion, but it did while away an hour or two.

Captain Haddock

Martin donned his smock and set out to fish the oceans today, and had a great start. He caught a lovely looking fish but decided it was too small, so threw it back in. He caught another similar one later, both having a greenish hue (not necessarily as green as the crews’, but hey, he has promised to do the gutting and cleaning). Did not know what they were to begin with, needed to study his new book! There were also other bites, not landed, so he thinks this is going to be easy.... Plenty dolphin activity today, followed by lots of Martin activity as he lifted his line to avoid catching one by accident. They are probably after Martin’s discarded catch!

A Conundrum

One of the odd things that seem to happen is that you do not see a big ship all day, and then one appears on the radar in the middle of the night. Despite the fact that this is a very big ocean, the ship you have now spotted always seems to be heading directly at the yacht! You change course to ensure that there will be plenty of sea room between you, and you know they might either be watching videos or the tanker would take 3 miles to turn. Then, blow me, the big ship seems to alter course and is still aiming right at you. The radar is a clever device, and it even tells the time to collision, so you change course again and this time, or the next time you do it, things begin to look better and you eventually pass a couple of miles away from each other. Either the helmsman on these boats is bored out of his skull and wants to engage in a game of “chicken” that only they can win, or is there some kind of additional alarm built secretly into yacht radar systems at the behest of the big shipping companies, to make you panic and take dramatic avoiding action!

...And Another

Perhaps not as odd, though as the actions of tired and worried skippers. You know how you wake up in the middle of the night with something mithering you. Did you switch over the diesel return valve when you changed supply from fore to aft tank in Las Palmas? Did you switch off the inverter to stop wasting amps all night ? Was the water maker feeding the port tank or the starboard tank (i.e. the drinking one) when you ran it today? One of these niggling questions lit up my brain in the middle of the night, and I knew I could not sleep till it was answered. The boat was lurching around like a drunkard, standing up and retaining balance was a major challenge (not helped by the fact you’re wearing earplugs to mute the horrendous noise that is a sailing yacht going downwind), and it was dark. Putting on clothes seemed a bit unnecessary since Bob (on watch) was in the cockpit (probably listening to music and/or reading), and it would only take a second to check the distribution panel by the Nav Station.  It may seem extraordinary to you on dry land, but it seemed perfectly logical to me to crawl along the passageway from the aft cabin since the panel is at knee height, check it out (and of course, it was all ok), and crawl back to the bunk. Mission accomplished and sleep beckoned. In the morning, Bob explained that he had had the misfortune to look down through the cockpit hatch at exactly the wrong moment, and had therefore spent a troubled watch reflecting on the absurdity of human behaviour and the sanity of the skipper. Harrumph.....

Watergaw