2 December (Richie's log)
Mum's birthday today! and, to celebrate we caught
another fish- which we are going to have for lunch with a glass of champagne!
Hooray! I know we said it's a 'dry' boat but this is an exception. we did have a
bit of an isssue as we were reeling the fish in! one of the lines from the
parasail which we had taken down one hour previously had fallen in the
water and jammed the propeller, cutting the engine. At the time the fish was
being blamed for this mishap from certain quarters. Actually, it had
nothing to do with the fish, it was our mistake for not ensuring that all lines
were secure and tight before starting the engine in the first place. should have
known better but hopefully we'll learrn from it. Anyway, Alex volunteered to
dive down and cut the rope free and we were all happy to let him -
(your fishing line, you cut the rope!) Blood from the fish had
already spilt into the sea making the rest of us all the more reluctant to get
into the soup. no sharks came, fortunately for Alex and he managed to dive down
and cut the rope free.
This was the second near disaster in as many
days.On saturday night we were in one hell of a storm! I think we must have been
right in the centre of it because the gale force wind just kept swirling
around from all directions, we had waves at least 5 metres high also coming
from all directions, torrential rain and lightening,and it was dark! we had been
sailing all afternoon with about 1/2 the genoa sail out but, when the winds
reached 40 knots (just after the dinner had fallen out of the microwave and
smashed on the floor!) we decided to furl all of he sail in, and the
furling line snapped! The sail was flapping about and getting shredded to bits
and the wind speed had increased to 55 knots! Anyway, we got the sail down
manually and lashed it on the deck, but it was not the kind of situation you
would choose to be in! Thankfully, no-one was hurt and the only damage in the
end was the sail. we spent yesterday 'picking up the pieces', tidying the boat,
drying our clothes in the sun and stitching the sail back together. we carried
on with more stitching today, but i'm not sure if we'll manage it before we run
out of thread!