Day 6
Andys view:
Woke up and found ourselves knee deep in butter so its time to turn right . If I was in charge of morale I'd make a point of saying we were now on the home straight, just omit the fact its 2010 miles long.
Mike has got over his tackle faux pas, that's fishing tackle for those that missed the previous blog. The dog nobbler still observes from its resting place in the dinghy but undeterred we rigged the daughter of the said perros nobbler on a new rod with freshly wound line. I don't know where these lures have come from but this one would be at home in an Ann summers shop. An exploratory deployment and voila, immediately hooked into another monster of the deep. With an almost touching paternal gesture mike offered me the opportunity of landing the beast, perhaps he is my long lost sea dad.
Anyway I successfully got it onboard without any major problem - watch and learn Michael. The humanists amongst the crew quickly offered a bottle of single malt apparently to dull the effects of the coup de grace. Thankfully I can report that after drinking it I suffered no trauma and wielded the winch handle to deadly effect. The species has prompted much debate on its name. I've checked my Collins book of all things fishing which tells me its not a perch. Where is google when you need it. Suffice to say its gone the same way as its predecessor cooked with culinary aplomb. I feel it appropriate that until confirmed we should refer to it as UFO - that's an unidentified frying object.
Come on it is Christmas cracker time~Roger is ever optimistic about deploying his array of downwind sails and I sincerely hope we get that opportunity, but with 20 kts plus constantly up the chuff it won't be for a day or so. Enough ramblings for now = there will be plenty more opportunity in the coming days I fancy.
Andy out.
Well what a busy Sunday, even though church was out, woke up and baked made some fresh yeast for baking bread made enough dough for two loaves and then to fishing. Got out other rod and successfully trained apprentice in winding in fishing line. See above. Back to bread, dough successfully risen divided into two. First half of dough for white loaf today kneaded in a little olive oil and placed in bread tin to prove. Onto second half of dough.decided to make a sort of focaccia so kneaded in loads and loads of olive oil and olives till it was like jelly,then pressed out onto baking tray with lots of tomatoe pressed in the top. Left to prove lit oven and put in. came back after 30 minutes to find oven on low .. so turned up quickly and served lunch a bit late.. think I got away with it.Fish for supper and pigs leg still on mizzen
Mike over... and a very happy 40th birthday to Lesley X
After these somewhat literary aspirations of my crew it is the skipper's task to contribute towards the tribulations of day 6.
Inspired by a starlit night, the moon not having had time to arise from its slumber yet, and not yet incapacitated by any flying fish hitting me between the eyes (we have seen a few during the day), it is time for yours truly to scribble down a few thoughts.
As has been said, at around 9AM today we came to the road sign that said "turn right here for St Lucia", just south of 20 degrees north, and we duly complied by turning downwind. Of course it's the prerogative of the skipper to get his timing right and come on deck after his slumber just when his crew have to manhandle the not inconsiderable spinnaker pole that is part of the Amel rigging package. It is quite laborious to set up, but once set and with the genoa unfurled it is surprisingly effective. Goosewinged like this, with mainsail set on preventer to starboard we found ourselves being hurdled along our great circle track towards St Lucia, with speeds of up to 9 knots, increasing as we surfed down a few 12 foot waves.
The morning brought us grey skies and thus not quite the idyllic tropical trade wind conditions we had hoped for, but in the afternoon the 20-30 knot winds had swept these clouds away to finally give us some glorious sailing conditions. We are saving our sunbathing platform for later on in the trip but the omens sure looked good.
After downloading the daily ARC weather report and fleet position reports we were naturally disappointed not to be at the head of the fleet, not including those poxy little racing yachts, but it looks as if our gamble to head south has paid off. Most of the fleet to our northwest will get themselves stuffed by a low pressure system forming on their path further west, and they will have to start heading south, if they want to avoid being blocked by headwinds. We might keep this downwind and westerly heading for another day or two, and then head further south to pick up beneficiary effects of the Equatorial Current that will help with our speed over ground.
As the log is close to passing 1000 nautical miles and the ship's log is looking rather professional with 2 hourly updates, it is time for yours truly to sign off and get back up on deck in order to catch the aforementioned flying fish, as a mere billion stars light the way.
Roger