can we help
+44(0)1983 296060
+1 757-788-8872
tell me moreJoin a rally

Menu

Northern Child - Daily Log 7 - 3/12/12 - Up, up and away.........




Daily Run    198nm
DTT             178nm
 
Lunch           Cheeseburgers
Dinner           Thai Green Chicken Curry and Rice
 
So the last 24hrs has seen many changes and all very good ones!  Firstly, the conditions are doing what they are supposed to with a moderating wind and sea state.  I know I keep mentioning this, but I can't fully explain what a joy that is after 5 hard days at sea.  The sailing through the night was very pleasant with a beautiful starry night for the 0200-0600 watch.  There was one surprise visitor during that shift which was a flying fish that almost landed in Gerrits mouth.  Fortunately it hit his cheek and at the time he thought that it was one of his watch flicking something at him, until he looked down and hasd the fright of his life with this fish flapping about on the seat next to him - much to the rest of his watches amusement.  He did the kind thing though and threw the little fella back in.......
 
The change in the conditions, also meant that we were ready for a Spinnaker today, so with nearly all hands on deck, we rigged up ready and hoisted the new blue/white symmetric spinnaker.  It looked great for about 30 seconds, right before the head ring snapped and it came falling down into the sea.  A brief moment of panic, when I thought we sould run over it and tear it to shreds, but a quick reaction from the crew meant that we had it back onboard in a jiffy and safely in it's bag.  This meant that the spinnaker halyard was stuck at the top of the mast and so I donned the bosuns chair and was hoisted to the top to retrieve it.  I did chuckle to myself waving around at the top of the mast thinking about how I told Lucy off last year when she did the same in the ARC without me, as we, "had a spare halyard and she didn't need to retrieve it". 
 
Undeterred by the minor setback, we decided to hoist the blue/yellow symmetric spinnaker and were soon off, surfing down waves again and pointing straight at St Lucia.
Gerrit who is a very good helm was on the wheel to start with and gave a big "Yeee Hah" when Northern Child took off down a wave at 17 knots in only 24 knots of wind - we fall of waves pretty quickly!!  One by one we rotated through the crew giving everyone a chance to drive with the spinnaker up and it was a real highlight for everyone.  Proper downwind sailing in the Trade winds - a real wonderful treat.  All day Tim and Tom were fixing the no2 which had now dried in the sun and they made a pretty good job of it, considering the lack of sewing machine, space and moving platform.  "Better than thn Bl**dy sailmaker" - yes alright Uncle Albert......  Indeed much better than the sailmaker!  So at 1630, it was time to take down the spinnaker, then the no4 briefly, to reconnect the no2 and then rehoist the no2 and no4 together.  Finally poled out again with the no2 and no4, with the staysail filling in the gap between mast and forestay and we were into night sailing mode.
 
The other thing that happened was also a massive boost in crew morale, with everyone laughing, joking and relaxing on deck, rather than heading straight for their bunks for shelter.  Finally, today the crew all saw what I know as wonderful downwind Atlantic sailing and all were delighted to see how wonderful it can be out here.  Looking at the next week, it seems as though the conditions will just keep improving with calmer seas and nice moderate Trades. 
 
As we passed the half way mark this afternoon, Adolfo made a special Rum cocktail to celebrate and we toasted to Posiedon and safe passage for the rest of the journey.  It was a good day, but also a long day with sail repairs, some helming coaching, halyard retrieving, sail changing, sail packing, meal making and bread baking (no skip the bread baking). 
 
Till tomorrow, a very tired
 
Christian, Tim and crew




Previous | Next