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Aretha - High Winds & Confused Seas - Day 6. 11 42 North 74 21 West



It’s a dark night and the seas are confused as they come from different directions. Aretha is being bounced this way and that on the waves as Alan the autopilot picks a course through the seas. The wind is building - it’s risen from 18 to 25 knots and we’re expecting up to 40 knots overnight. I’m grateful we’re onboard Aretha - these are the seas she was designed for and she feels rock solid. This is a big wind acceleration zone and the winds are known as the “Crazy Winds”.

We’re 20 miles North of Santa Marta in Colombia and not far from Barranquilla. The advice is: Keep well off the headland at Barranquilla, currents from the rio Magdalena estuary really strong & loads of rubbish,trees & the like closer in.

 Fun and games then!

The children, Nichola and Caroline are all sleeping soundly and we are making good progress. We have the right sails for the job (3 reefs in the main and a poled out headsail with half the genoa which I can easily furl if we need to reduce sail) and Aretha is well balanced.

We had some challenges reefing the main earlier - the second reefing line jammed so after half an hour trying to release this on a bouncy foredeck, I opted for the 3rd reef. With hindsight easily the right choice and much simpler.

The good news is no sea sickness - all are in fine form and with sea legs.

3 things have been in plentiful supply today:

1) Shipping - this is a busy part of the world as the huge tankers and container ships charge towards Panama at 15 plus knots. These are big beasts and we call most on the VHF to make sure they have seen us. The majority are very friendly and happily adjust course if needed. One of the larger ones at 800 feet passed just 1 mile away from us this afternoon. It’s fascinating for all of us to see these up close.

2) Flying fish - loads of them including one that flew across the cockpit between Caroline and myself before landing on the deck. This one got to live another day as we threw it back.

3) Dolphins - both at day and at night - at night they are like torpedoes flying past with the phosphorosence shing from them,

Wind is now a steady 26 knots - we’re cantering along at 8 knots and bouncing around. It’s great fun :) Whoosh and we just hit 11.5 knots.

We had happy hour onboard today to adjust the clocks. Nichola made fairy cakes and we had 2 treasure hunts - the Great Sir Francis Drake treasure hunt and the Mermaid treasure hunt arranged by Bluebell. Happy children = a happy life.

Plenty more to say, but I’d best go and surf some waves and keep us on track - we have more breeze coming in.

Out from a fast paced Aretha.


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