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Quasar V of Lleyn - Quasar V's log for 24.1.09



24th January 2009

 

IT CAN NOT BE SIRIUS

 

Said in true John McEnroe style!!  My gosh, I've never seen Sirius looking so colourful.  She sparkled with a brilliance unmatched in the nightsky: red, yellow, blue, green, orange , the belle of the ball.  She certainly had her competitors though:  Rigel and Betelgeuse (stars in the Orion constellation) twinkled in delight; Canopus glistened and flickered.  The backdrop ( the milky way ) was equally stunning as it cast a narrow veil across the sky.  I was in awe of the beautiful night sky, but particularly impressed by Sirius. Did you know that Sirius lies 8.6 light years away and is one of the sun's closest neighbours.  She is the brightest star in the sky, followed by Canopus, which lies 313 light years away. 

 

The only disappointing factor of the night was that the engine was chugging away most of the night.  But at the first sign of a fresh breeze we hoisted the spinnaker and she's been up all day, bolstered along by a gentle east north easterly.  With Malcy's bacon and mushroom butties for lunch the day was unfolding rather pleasantly.

 

Shortly after lunch we all scurried off to attend to our "vehicle" projects.  Do you remember me mentioning this earlier: I set a challenge at the start of this leg for each of us to design/build a vehicle. It needs to be completed and presented to the judge (that would be me but I might have to revisit that rule given I've decided to enter the challenge!). 

 

I shall start with Ian's vehicle ! oh my gosh!  How talented is our Ian, disappearing from time to time in the confines of the rear cabin, to work with meticulous precision on his amazing green race car, made out of cans, plastic containers, string, straw, clear plastic..utterly amazing. 

 

Then there's Sam; a very practical, functional approach , not a care for aesthetics, not at this juncture anyway, but I think he can safely claim to be the only one to have designed a self-propelled plastic water bottle type vehicle. 

 

Then Malcolm's vehicle, boasting a big wheel at present (the sheave from a broken block , clever) is clearly designed by a patient and methodical engineer but there's lots of bits everywhere.  Promising though lets just say the dark horse of the race at this early stage.

 

Now Lindsey is designing a work of art.  In sympathy for Cleone, and the demise of Cleone's much loved spinnaker she set about knitting a new spinnaker for him, which gave her more than a thread of an idea; she would build Cleone a new boat.  She's been sawing, sanding, measuring??.those who know of Lindsey's talents, know that building a model boat is very much within her area of expertise.  She's working on the mast at present and fitting the rigging, having carved out an exceptionally brilliant hull.

 

Now that leaves me.  I'm kinda quite embarrassed by the vehicle I'm building, but hey it's the taking part that counts not the winning!!  Anyway someone has to sail this boat!!

 

Early evening provided us with a glorious display of blue finned tuna, leaping out of the water, thrashing around.  The shoal of tuna surrounded the boat for 20 minutes.  Sam leapt in to action with 5 metres of line and lure (Sam asserted that he only had 5 metres of line left as he had almost caught a whale earlier in the day which took the lure and the rest of the line!)  prone to exaggeration?  No not our Samwise Gangee.  Anyway, with 5 metres of line trailing behind us, we could see about 5 tuna vying for the lure, gliding up with the waves and then pouncing.  It was incredible to watch.but short lived as a blue finned tuna took a firm bite and took the lure with him. 

 

Linds cooks a lovely prawn and salmon curry and with the spinnaker up the night watches commence.  And boy, what a night it turns out to be.

 

Stay tuned for the next instalment!

 

Position @ 0700 24.1.09: 14.26S 20.42W


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