5 December 2012
Well at about 0800 our time, 1000 in London and 5:00 am U S eastcoast we were 1420 miles from St Lucia and about 1470 from Las Palmas. We are traveling at approximately 10.2 knots, in 18.6 knots of wind. We have the main sail up to just one reef point and the repaired genoa - out all the way - at this point things look good. And the waves have calmed down from 15 to 20 feet (5 meters to 6 meters) to about 5 to 7 (3 meters).
For the past two days we have had the genoa off. We drapped it onto the spray hood (dodger) and bimini top. The top of the boat was completely covered. We had to turn the air conditioning on because of a greenhouse effect down below. Two teams: Miles, Andy, and Beau were on the outside, Schaefer, Ian, and Dom were on the inside thrusting the very large and sharpsail cloth needle back and forth to each other. They stitched it, taped it and then ran additional stitching threw the tape using both red and green stitching to keep track of the patches on the sail. They finished with a "box" stitch to secure the patch. The sail should hold up as long as we do not encounter any extreme gusts of wind (over 35 knots).
Go Pro Camera - small little cameras that are often used in photographing extreme sports. Pictures of a skier going down hill taken from the level of the ski or the skier's helmet to give you an incredible effect. Andy, Ben, and Miles each have one. The lens can be either a "fish eye" or "wideangle". They have been taking some great photos of our adventure using these cameras.
Miles discovered a large sling shot aboard. It resembles the rubber sling shots that three people use to shoot t-shirts into thecrowd at sporting events in the U S (i.e. Penn State Football games). Miles started it off shooting some fruit and veges that had spoiled off the stern of the boat. Then he got the idea to tie his water proof "Go Pro" onto a fishing pole off the stern. He had tied fishing line to the camera and was shooting it about 60 feet (20 meters) in the air. Using his "MacPro" laptop he has created some incredible videos. He has one titled "Summer Vacation" which shows what he's experienced since he joined the boatin Cannes, France this summer. He's a very lucky young man to see and do what he has been experiencing over the past few months.
We are keeping our fingers crossed that things hold together!
Cheers!