Hi All,
Every thing goes well over the past 24 hours. Despite the sea still being confused and the wave direction at variance with the wind, we have made excellent progress. ( Its not so easy to make good speed when the wave direction is different to the wind direction - you get short choppy seas and the hull of the yacht bashes its way through the waves, rather than cuts though or glides down them!). We were very pleased to make 160 miles between noon 18th and 19th May.
Regretfully our progress was not in a direct line with our destination Faial (Horta) in The Azores! This seems to be our way for most of the journey: we have had to divert a hundred miles to avoid wind and now we are having to do the same, in a totally different direction but to find wind this time!! Such is the life of a sailor.
We are remain well though and in good spirits, as we head north east attempting to stay in good winds as long as we can. ( we do have 2 days worth of fuel to motor if required, but its about 1070 miles ( 8 - 10 days to go ) if we encounter light winds.
Our hopes of arriving on the 24th May, the birthday of the first mate, have been dashed, but we have started a sweep stake on when we will eventually arrive. [You are all invited to make your best guess and forward the date and time you think we will finish in Faial. ( Thats loval time -0 UTC ) The cost is €5 for each guess and you can claim the win in beer money from the rest of the crew if successful]. A special birthday treat has been arranged for the first mate, but I'll keep that secret for now.
The 'delayed arrival into the Azores has sparked a whole new load of thinking.... I'll share some of that fun over the next few days..... There was an inventory of the food we have and discussion as to whether we would have enough....
This is a true story: The Nantucket Whalers, a small island community off the E coast of America had a very prosperous business catching and selling whale blubber and oil. They were so successful that they had to go to sea for months and some times years to find more whales. They had an unwritten rule: "if they ran out of food and were starving with no prospect of survival, they would eat the youngest crew member on board, who was usually the last to join he yacht". [True]. We ( thats most of the crew - with one notable exception ) the crew of Ballytrim believe it may be necessary to invoke this rule, if we are delayed further. As skipper, I personally know who the youngest is and have made it know I want the left thigh, in the event of this unfortunate business.
Our youngest crew member, ( who shall not be named for his families sake - Mr C - ) has put together a pretty compelling argument that if somebody should be sacrificed, shouldn't it be the largest person present who would provide the greatest meal. Its an interesting argument, but the fact remains that young meat would be less tough than some of the older bigger boys here!! Permission to kill someone else has been denied!!!!
We are having some fun despite the fact some of the guys are beginning to smell. There's a fair bit of denial going on about this - so more stories tomorrow.
Out thought today are with those who sail the sea, plus their friends and families.
Geoff x
Sent from my iPad