Zephyrantes Day 15
Zepher
Chris & Lyn Darch
Tue 11 Dec 2007 13:35
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14:40.7N
53:45.6W
Hello!
Engineering Officer reporting in.
Today there was a different early morning
chorus; it normally goes along the lines of "Are nearly there yet? NO go
away" today it when "Are we nearly there yet? YES!", 430nm to go.
The crew have had a very exciting 24hrs with lots
of yachts to see both during the day and night. Strangely a lot on them tried to
contact us by VHF radio, we thought they wanted to have a nice chats, but
they only wanted know what the hell we were doing and what were our
intentions! Maybe they were intimidated by this big white boat coming over
the horizon with a big bone in her teeth. Or perhaps our manoeuvring
anticts as we tried to sort the twin head sail rig, for the nerds more rig
details later. If only they knew! Zepher's crew where in fact
going through the usual routine, when a 'yot' is sighted, of getting
extraordinarily excited then panic as we try to restrain the skipper as he
raises the colours and rolls out the cannon or
torpedoes etc. We've not been able to stop doing this and one of
these occasions he will get a shot off!
Rig details: the previous night there was a
big bang and the port sail went slack when the turning block at the end of the
pole parted company. The lashing had burst! this was time for the
engineering team to burst into action on the foredeck, there's always something
exciting to do. But, there is always a but, the repair didn't go to plan and
cutting a very long story short we lost one pole halyard up the mast. Then
the rest of the crew say "now what are you going to do", very helpful, basically
just sit and stare--------well what else do you do? After a bit we hoisted
the skipper up the staysail, and added a few wraps to try to keep him up there
for the rest of the trip, unfortunately he managed to get the halyard so let him
down.
The entertainment's officer is due for a
commendation for her dedication and steady hand on the helm when, during the
foredeck operations, the autopilot decided to go into standby and the boat
rounded up rapidly putting the skipper into panic mode as he slid down towards
the water. Mary, you will understand this is the official
story! We need more help.
During the afternoon we all got excited for a
another reason; saw some small whales surfing down the big waves just 50m astern
of us. They looked like small killer whales with black on top a white
underneath. Any idea what they were?
Finally many thanks to the shore support team,
Richard and Wendy, we really appreciate your hard work putting ARC report
together, it keeps us well informed plus the skipper likes to tick off each boat
we pass.
Bye for now.
Roger
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