Friday 9th January 2009
HAVING A SWELL
TIME
Morning folks.
After a chilly start to the morning, the sun soon broke free of the
horizon and thicket of low-lying clouds and by 10am it was a gloriously
hot day. The spinnaker beckoned as
the notoriously inconsistent trade winds found a little consistency and swept in
from the south-east. The only down
side to this otherwise perfect sail was a persistent south westerly swell but
today it was accompanied by a south easterly swell ? no doubt developed by the
trade winds picking up. So you can
imagine it?s been a little uncomfortable.
Due
to the unpleasant swell, little motivation could be garnered from the crew to
carry out small jobs. Ian has
admitted to having a rather lazy day, Lindsey has been wrestling with a
headache, Sam has given up on the bracelet and is on his tenth book! Malcolm, to his credit, stood up to the
swells and fixed the flagstaff and the ensign is now proudly flying at the stern
of the boat. Unfortunately for me I found myself in the galley most of the day
preparing lunch, afternoon chocolate cake, for the chocolate fiends amongst us,
honey and muesli muffins for the others, and then supper. I had promised Malcy that I would roast
some potatoes to have with the pork and I duly kept my promise, despite the
swell tossing me about from one side of the galley to the other.
By
dusk, we decided to take down the spinnaker due to the unsettled seas and came
up to windward slightly and broad reached all night. We were up on our course but concluded
that we?d either put the Twistle rig or spinnaker up at first light. I have to add at this juncture that true
to form, when taking down the spinnaker, the snuffer got jammed so we had to
lower the sail the old fashioned way with Sam at one point splayed out over the
spinnaker thwarting any wish it may have to billow up or over board, before
being stowed in the spinnaker bag. Fun and games before our sundowners!
Position @ 0700 UTC 24.18S
07.37E