A quieter night was had by all with gentle winds from behind and a reducing sea. In the main a brightly light night with a nearly full moon and millions of stars. During the night we were visited by Dolphins for the first time this trip and Jupiter was clearly visible near the moon just before dawn. everyone slept much better and some didn’t appear until after 9 am.....
Just to liven things up a little a certain crew member, (the oldest), who shall remain nameless caught the main power switch with his toe whilst blundering around in his cabin and caused a very short power cut. That caused the autopilot to loose control, reset the nav. instruments and gave us all a short fright! Then just to check the effect he did it again in the middle of the night when his alarm woke him with a jolt... The upside is that we no longer need to strip down the forward cabin as the wind instruments started to work again after all the power was shut down and the system rebooted. We should have thought of that first but hadn’t but we know now.
Breakfast was served on deck consisting of Muesli (sugar free of course) with Yogurt followed by hard boiled eggs and fresh baguettes. Tea or Coffee to taste. The galley gang are performing well and providing amusement as well. Not unlike the Muppet show!!! The sight of Charlie passing the eggs for breakfast out of his heads (w.c.) is best not dwelt upon but they tasted good all the same. One wonders if he had just laid them?
On inspection of the rig on morning rounds we found a few issues that required attention that kept us busy all morning. The mainsail is showing a bit of stretch around the top spreader ends so we will need to be more careful to keep it sheeted off the rig. The headsail roller furling cage has rotated caused by the rope feeding on too low and bunching on the bottom half of the drum. We have moved the feeder up on the pulpit rail which seems rather too flexible so we have had to strop it to a fairlead with some rope and it seems ok for now.
We found a fairing piece loose on the mast which was clearly bent in manufacture. The deck light up the mast was dangling which required a man up the mast so we volunteered John. The foredeck hatches have been forced open due to the jib sheets snagging under them which required us to carry out some temporary repairs and preventative measures until the makers can sort it out fully.
All the above complete and we set about rigging the spinnaker pole to hold the jib out which required us to experiment for a couple of hours to resolve various options and decide how to proceed but it looks good now.
Mid afternoon we were surrounded by a huge school of Dolphins jumping 3 ft. in the air chasing fish and for fun? A fantastic sight......
Any rumours that the spirit of Ted Heath has re-appeared in the Atlantic can be dismissed however somehow Will Barton has laid his hands on an old Genoa from “Morning Cloud” so sail No K2468 is now flying free of our port bow, poled out jib to starboard and main is on the boom. It reminds me of a very large Bikini top half clean and new and half old and faded but good all the same. We hit 13 Knots straight down wind which put a smile on Will’s face despite the rain and an eye infection he has contracted in one eye.
Richard has been using his hand as a hammer whilst ably assisting with repairs to the main sail track on the mast and has paid for it with pains in his elbow. It seems we never learn... Charlie has broken a glass dish from the microwave and then failed to clean it all up so he is now under the supervision of the quack (John D) sat with his hand in the air enjoying a great meal made by John out of his dog bowl... Will Barton’s is pink which is a little worrying?
Will B is on deck enjoying the thought that we may be creaming up the fleet touching 13 Knots at times and Hansel has managed to get us within 164 ft. cross track error of intended course. We are heading for waypoint 4 and are intending to miss out waypoint 3 on our way to get to below 20 degrees North to avoid the effects of a low developing mid Atlantic that may produce head winds. Hansel has given us a gate about 100 miles wide to aim for as he is worried about our steering? and gone to his bunk.
Nobody has managed to find time to read much yet which is a bit of a surprise for all.
Enough for now and be assured that all is well and happy on Puddlejumper this evening even though the sick bay has been busy this evening.
Love to all
Time for bed for 4 Hrs.
WSMc