14th May Day 4 Bermuda - Azores 35:00.063N 056:53.734W
Whisper
Noel Dilly
Tue 14 May 2013 12:40
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"What A Difference A Day Makes"
We thought that we had escaped the strong winds
yesterday morning, but by mid afternoon we were reefing the Genoa again and
putting a second reef in the main and cruising along comfortably. We have
altered course putting some south into our easterly bearing so as to keep
out of the worst of the weather.
During the night a ship arrived in the area, our
SeaMe was registering that our transmission was being received on a
ship's radar, but the ship was not visible to us, the seas were quite
large and it was some 18nm away from our
position. We switched on the AIS, which gave us all
the necessary details of its name; course; heading; speed etc. Looking
at the small screen showing our position and that of the ship we could see
that in this vast ocean it could get a little cosy. Noel called the ship
up on the radio and asked the captain if he could see us on his radar, he
said he could but we were a little weak. He also said, "do not
worry we will pass behind you and look after you". That was very
comforting as he was steaming along at 17kn! As he got closer to us he
called us up and said that he could now see us and that he would pass
across our bow at a distance of 1.9nm. We continued to watch him on the
screen and from the companion way in-between the gofers, which were becoming all
too regular). He did infact pass us at that distance, but gosh he did look
close.
We had another exciting experience, Windy Bill
broke his traces once again. I woke up to a very shuddery boat wondering
what on earth was going on. Noel had also woken up and immediately knew
what it was. Apart from the vibration Whisper was happily sailing herself
but was too close to the wind. Sandro took the helm, whilst Noel fixed the
problem and I stayed below on the basis that I couldn't do anything and there
was no point in the three of us getting wet! My turn to get wet came soon
enough when I was on watch and needed to adjust Windy Bills vane
direction!
We are making good progress and all is
well.
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