Sabine - sabine (118) ARC daily blog update - 5 Dec 2022

Hello interweb friends, Captain Stape on sail boat Sabine right here (///nuzzle.scribbler.brat)
During the night watch Richard tells me there was almost, but not quite, enough wind to sail without the assistance of the motor. Almost…
The wind was teasing us: it increases, we speed up, we lift the motor to sail, it decreases again and the motor is lowered again, but unlike the wind, the motor is reliable and quiet. It’s only when Maria is turned on that there’s drama and noise, at 2am!
It’s Monday: Happy Birthday Richard! His ‘One in a Minion’ birthday card from his partner Emily is proudly on display in the saloon. Kia asks if he likes the Minions, whilst suggesting that Richard looks like one! Personally, they’re too yellow. They should have been red, like me as that’s a splendid colour.
Richard gets up and is presented with freshly cooked bacon, eggs and American pancakes with maple syrup! (Did I mention we all eat well?) And the spinnaker is already flying as Kia and Polina have managed to hoist it whilst John, Richard and myself slept. They were like ninjas in the early morning light, padding silently across Sabine and using hand signals for communication. Maria is silent as well at the moment, and Pete the spinnaker is flying proudly.
But it looks like we’re in tornado alley - Kia has to suddenly douse the spinnaker and start the motor as we see a large black cloud coming towards us with a water spout forming at the bottom of it. When the cloud passes, dropping some rain on us as it does, the spinnaker is released again and we start to accelerate.
Richard takes watch after his enormous breakfast. Never mind the Jolly Roger, we have the Jolly Pete flying at the moment. (John named the G3 asymmetric spinnaker ‘Pete’). We’re making 5-7knots, nudging 8knots occasionally. And as the sea is relatively calm, it’s a smooth and speedy ride.
Good news everyone!!! After his watch finished Richard had another shower!!! :-D This time he said he used the skippers shower, which is a proper shower room with a seat in front of the skipper’s head (loo/washroom). It also has the ‘zen window’ - a hatch in the inner side of the port hull where you can look out and see the water wooshing past the boat (that’s a technical term ;-) and also look up through the net at the front and watch the spinnaker pulling us along, whilst listening to the subdued sounds of the water. Very zen-like!
We have to make the most of the wind today as the GuessWind app is foretelling a huge dead zone that we’ll reach (and by ‘we’ I mean the whole of the ARC fleet that hasn’t made it to St. Lucia yet) by sometime tomorrow (Tuesday-ish). To avoid it, we’d have to go directly south about 400miles towards Brazil, which we don’t want to do. Luckily we still have plenty of diesel so can motor if we need to, using Maria as and when required to top up the propulsion batteries if we can’t make enough sun. But we’ll be slow. Maybe we can manage 4knots when other boats with ‘normal’ motors can usually motor at 6+knots.
As a special birthday treat, Richard opens one of his 3 remaining cans of cider. His first drink in over 2 weeks! He said it tastes really good, and shares some of it with John, who agrees. John is a rare breed: an American who know about, and enjoys cider.
Microwave update!!! The knob has been fixed, maybe… More glue has been applied with some tightly wound electrical tape. No more open-microwave surgery yet, so a very delicate touch is required. The person who wasn’t supposed to touch it has, apparently, successfully warmed up her lunch, which I guess is good news even though she was banned from using it! I guess this means if it can survive that, it’s good to go and it’s back in action - hallelujah!! I’m sure, my interweb friends, you’re all relieved to hear this drama seems to be nearing a happy ending. Of course, I’ll keep you all posted if things change.
As we’ve made so much progress sailing today, the solar panel remains unmoved and still on the starboard side of the roof. Maybe when we end up in the dead zone I’ll remind Kia that there’s an outstanding job to complete. I wonder how he’ll take being reminded by a parrot?!
Richard rings his mum on the IridiumGo! Sat phone app, who wishes him a happy birthday, and then asks about the microwave. Seems there are plenty of people worried about the state of the microwave :-D
At Richard’s birthday request, Kia is cooking burgers for dinner, with chips. Yum! Think I’ll have cheese on mine. Oh, wait, what?!? He’s not cooking one for me??? Bah! What’s a parrot got to do to get fed around here!
Richard and John douse and put away the spinnaker behind the Genoa so that we keep on sailing and it makes it easy for the bucket to be pulled down as the spinnaker is de-powered. Clever! And also useful that catamarans are quite wide - I don’t think this would work on a monohull.
Traditional birthday party dessert is jelly and ice cream, but as we don’t have any jelly, Richard and John tuck into the ice cream. Polina is pleading for them to finish it completely so she’s not tempted, but what if they want some for later? There’s still about a third of a tub left for someone to enjoy in the future. Maybe I might be able to sneak a little bit myself., as I missed out on a burger. Fairs fair!
The night draws in and Richard calls his partner Emily on the satellite phone thingymajig, who’s very happy to hear from him. She says that GuessWind thinks we’re already in the dead zone, but Richard points out we have plenty of wind and are currently doing around 7knots!
I hope that GuessWind will be wrong about the dead zone as well. Time will tell, watch this space!
There’s a commotion as I’m just getting ready to send this. An alarm is going off. That’s not normally a good sign… it turns out to be the overcharge alarm from the house batteries. There was a transfer from propulsion to house which wasn’t stopped. So the house was just charging, and charging. Remedy is easy: stop the transfer, and transfer power back to propulsion. Phew! Excitement over, in the dark of the red safety lights Kia notices something on the saloon floor, wonder what it is, goes to pick it up and is surprised when it’s slimy and starts wriggling in his hand. It’s a flying fish that has decided to join Richard’s birthday party. The uninvited guest is swiftly sent from whence it came!
And that’s about it for today, my interweb friends. This is Capt. Stape signing off with 719nm to go. Ciao ciao squawk!