15 March 2011
The last forty eight hours have been both tiring and tiresome. With the wind straight out of the north we spent the night motor sailing into a short choppy sea, every now and then Voyageur's bow would smash into a big oncoming roller and her speed would fall away. Then the sheets would vibrate, the sails flog, making sleep, for me at least, an impossibility. At dawn the lights of two other yachts off to our port turned out to be Chessie and Tzigane.
Throughout the morning one squall followed another, and at midday, with the sky ahead leaden and threatening we prepared once more for yet another blow. Suddenly the wind was going round in circles and we tacked this way and that trying to keep Voyageur moving through the water. As we entered this vortex we were hit by hammering rain. We quickly lost sight of our close companions as the visibility reduced to less than 100metres. This continued unceasingly for the next nine hours. We became very fatigued by the whole thing. Not only did we have to keep a constant lookout on deck and on the radar but also we were kept busy with constant sail trim. We do not ever remember having endured such a long spell of persistently heavy rain, even in Scotland! But it is the wet season so really we should not be too surprised.
For only the second time on this whole voyage I delved into my canned stores and opened a tin of Irish stew for supper to which we added potatoes and frozen veggies for quickness. Just as darkness fell we crossed the Equator to enter the northern hemisphere and poor old Neptune was grudgingly given a rather humdrum biscuit. I was feeling very peeved at the loss of my sun hat and the horrible weather conditions that were being thrown at us. We finally emerged from this weather system around 9pm. Halleujah! By 10pm the engine was silenced and we were off under reefed main and genoa and settled down for what we hoped would be a more settled night.
To add to our woes the wind instrument failed again and this after only five days out from Recife. It is always the same symptoms, but always a different fault is found so every time another repair bill in excess of 300GBP is demanded. It is not good enough and we are getting very tired indeed of this inconvenience. It couldn't have happened at a worse time either with the wind direction and speed so changeable in the constant squally weather conditions that we are currently experiencing. So our little yellow Q flag is tied to a lower aft shroud as a guide and the wind speed is mere guesswork. We have to be especially careful not to get caught out, so reef early to be on the safe side. It is not worth the risk. Our safety and that of the boat is paramount……
Susan Mackay