Sea Eagle - Sea Eagle Blog 24th May

Today life on Sea Eagle has started a lot more gently. The sun is shinning, the swell is diminishing and at last I have been able to hand steer comfortably on my morning watch. Sailing directly in to the rising sun with nothing around is definitely the best way to start the day.

Yesterday morning we were all jolted into action quite abruptly when the autopilot decided to flick over to standby all by itself. The boat then proceeded to round up to wind, causing a huge wave to crash over the bow. As soon as I saw a wave crash in through the saloon hatch and heard the sails flog, I jumped out of bed in my pyjamas to assist Ben and Mackie on the helm. We then proceeded to assess the situation, which was quite challenging given the swell and the amount of equipment that was stowed in the lazerette where the steering unit was situated. After a thorough inspection we concluded that all systems were doing fine, albeit a little warm. We decided to bear further South along the rhumb line in a hope that the swell would drop. We reefed the sails, worked effortlessly on creating a balanced helm and kept a more careful watch on the autopilot. The autopilot soon became the most valued and cared for crew member! The task for the rest of the day was then to dry out the inside of the boat. Sadly in an attempt to create the same freshness inside the boat as outside, some of the hatches were left slightly ajar. Luckily for Ian, Tim sacrificed himself and took the brunt of the wave in the twin. Mackie however who was on watch at the time was left without a bunk as the entire contents of his room were moved on deck to dry out in the sun. Once the mattresses were dried out, the saloon cushions were dismantled also. Thankfully by the time the sun was beginning to set all was dried out.

If that was not enough for us to do in one day, our fridge and freezer compressor pump decided to give up. Luckily having tackled a similar situation previously we were able to quickly resolve the issue by using the aircon unit outlet in the meantime until the pump can be fixed.

Thankfully all the crew are in high spirits and are getting accustomed to life onboard quite quickly, including regular sink unblocking procedures. With sailing conditions being so fantastic, we have kept a rigorous squall watch. Some of the crew taking it a little more serious than others. Ben definitely showed the most committed effort today by dressing up in full foul weather gear and boots for a 10 minute drizzle.

I have quite easily slipped into sleeping almost all of the six hours in between my shifts on watch and am gradually getting through my entire winter collection of warm weather clothing. The only gripe I have had is that despite expressing my dislike for fungi, mushrooms seem to be served up at every meal! Fishing them out of the dogbowl in the dark has been a challenge. Thankfully Ben has been on standby to gobble up my unwanted leftovers. With my leftover pizza slice, salad scraps, steak slithers and corner of shepherds pie now disposed of, I now only need to tackle yesterdays lasagne for lunch. Tonights meal plan is curry. Tim has chipped the bag the chicken away from the ice in the freezer and Ian is already planning how many mushrooms he can sneak in. I am really hoping that the stock of mushrooms run out soon! 

Written by the long suffering mushroom hater Ali