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Intrepid Bear - Intrepid Bear - 1,000 mile marker!



hi everyone!

little update from the bears on Intrepid Bear. first of all, can't quite believe that we're now coming into our sixth day at sea with over 1,000 miles on the log. Time and sea really has been flying past. The last few days have been some of our most exhilarating sailing since we set off from Portsmouth back in August. Much of the trip to date had more of a motor sailing feel to it with many hours bewitched by the sound of the engine. Not so the last few days (as long as you exclude the charging of batteries!). The start provided some strong winds to whizz us down the side of Gran Canaria where we opted to take a more Southerly route to avoid the wind acceleration zone - as it was 25+ knots was fine for us and we had friends taking 40 knots in this zone. By the afternoon we were free of the island and able to set a more South Westerly downwind course. None of this gybing for us, wind dead astern is very comfortable. With 25-30 knots we made better speed than anticipated, particularly when combined with the swell. The presence of the deep swell made us regret that we hadn't taken those surfing lessons - have seen 16 knots flash across the screen at some points along with a general humming noise cursing its way through the boat.

The swell also had a price to pay....it led to a general feeling of nausea across the boat. Milly and Thea in particular feeling it. Not Harry mind you, he's fine and able to play with the ipad under pretty much any circumstances. His sore tummy is more related to a continuous apetite for food and as far as he's concerned this trip is heaven. In order to get some energy into Milly and Thea, we've offered them all sorts of temptations (Haribo, lollipops, crisps, chocolate etc) all of which Harry has been delighted to partake in. Fortunately the sea legs have grown over the last few days and everyone is feeling much more alive. This said, the constant bucking and rolling is very draining and there is a general feeling of lethargy that makes even the smaller jobs harder to accomplish. Everyone mucks in though and everything is ship shape.

Intrepid Bear is handling the conditions very well and certainly isn't disappointing us in her ability to make good progress. With the winds, 200 mile days have really eaten into the miles. This does have a downside...no fish! we've now put out four lures and each one has been lost to Neptune, either through poor knots or bites/misses. Slower days may provide more opportunity! A few niggles along the way. Fridge pretty much stopped working. Fortunately we'd frozen a bunch of water in the freezer and this is the new coolbox for the meats. Asymetric spinnaker was torn coming down - internal rope tangled and led to all sorts of fun getting down (note sods law always dictates that any problems of this nature should happen in the dark and preferably when raining!). One of the lockers lost a catch needing to be tied down. No doubt there will be other niggles by the time we're done. Here's hoping they're all similarly capable of being coped with.

Today wind picking up to 30 knots and veering to the South of East - reefs in main and genoa pulling us along is the order of the day. Thanks to Sara's excellent provisioning, roast pork in the oven which should recharge us (assuming we can keep the plates on the table!

Intrepid Bears


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