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Monomotapa - 3 Decemeber



Monomotapa 3 December

The opposite watch to Giuliano's watch have all agreed that he needs steering lessons after waking us all up during a mad spinnaker roller coaster ride. We ride the spinnaker during the days but go to butterfly rigging during the night in order to get any sleep at all. Or we will try to run the spinnaker as long as there is moonlight. It is reasonable challenge to do it with moonlight but without, we run the risk of breaking the rigging of the boat.

When flying the spinnaker yesterday we had an unfortunate accident, the wind caught the spinnaker in the bag with the lines attached. As the spinnaker was being blown over the side we had no option but to haul the sail up to avoid any damage to the sail on the side of the boat dragged along by the water. During hauling up the mast the rope was pulled back by the force of the wind and water. Juan who was at the foot of the mast suffered rope burns to his hands and arm, and it was necessary to apply immediate first aid to ensure that no infection entered the wounds. A special burns cream was also applied to accelerate the healing of the damaged skin.Juan will be on light duties for the next couple of days while the skin heals and then he will have to use sailing gloves.

On a more happier note we had cava and panettone cake for the sundowner last evening to celebrate passing the half way mark. We can nearly smell and taste those rum punches from here.
This afternoon we were emulating our children by taking team selfies in the back cockpit. Some of us not so young adventurers know how to keep up wth the times ! Fine examples of that well known art of "Dad dancing" are available on request.

Trevor suggested that we should practice on knots and showed us how to make tie a noose for hanging people. Afraid of upsetting him, we did as requested. We are not completely sure why he chose that knot but we will keep an extra eye on him further on...

Last night there were a number of heavy and violent storms. We had only just congratulated ourselves that we had managed to slip between two frontal depressions when the wind shifted and we were caught in a squall where we traveled along the full length of the front, hammering us with heavy rain and winds of more than 30 knots for some 30 minutes. Previous the moonlight night discussed as "tranquilo". Following this we used the radar to check for further weather fronts and we were far better prepared with the genoa furled and the main reefed in.

We have now sailed for nine days now and covered 1600 nm. The distance to St Lucia is now 1160 nm

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