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Libeccio - Log: Weds Dec 3rd



Today we discuss: a little ahead of ourselves; whale of a time opus 3; Izzy’s back; the Lanai is open; Now this is what the brochure promised!   
 
Greetings from the not only good, but, great ship Libeccio. Following a rather wet and windy start to last evening, we find ourselves under sail, heading due east with the sun about to set over the horizon typing the log. All that is missing is that rather cheeky and slightly pretentious bottle of (fill in the blank with your favorite plonk) and all would be complete. Some would argue that the log should not be shared with the sunset, but, dear readers—you are worth it!
 
When we last left you we were still engaged in the dodge squall game and feeling, frankly, pretty full of ourselves— the score was Libeccio: a lot—squalls: nil.. we were pretty convinced we had it sussed when all of a sudden it was noted that the wind was picking up- not itself a bad thing necessarily, then  rain drops were being felt at the helm—pretty hard to ignore and then the heavens opened up—score one for the squalls. We were rather lucky in that it was a beginner squall, some may even say it was a rain cloud, but, we didn’t want to taunt it just because we had lost. The winds did not pick up very high (25 knots or so) but the boat did get a rather complete bath and its occupants sent scurrying to close all manner of hatches and doors. We are fortunate to have the helm enclosure so we largely stayed dry.
 
It seemed to be our night for losing and in the second round of battle that evening- we lost the wind. Not particularly a bright thing to do if you are a sail boat in a sailing rally, but, we lost the majority of the wind so that we were down to around 5 knots of wind which barely makes Libeccio move 1 – 2 knots. This leaves us vulnerable to a little more rocking by the waves than we would prefer and as importantly, unable to effectively avoid any squalls that may be hunting us down. Determined not to be bested by mother nature, we kept our Wing-on-Wing sail plan- apologies if this is repetitive but under this plan you have the main sail out on one side of the boat and the genny on the other, both suitably held in place by a boom preventer for the main sail and a barber hauler for the genny. With very little wind and no speed in the water, it made for a rather rolly night of (not so much) sleep. This lasted until 04:00 when the capt came on for his duty- through vast years of experience and innate ability to find the hidden pockets of wind --  he got lucky and the wind picked up enough to change the sail plan and start hunting down these baby squalls. The reason for this is that clouds like these have winds around them- preferably on the side, not so preferably in front and because they leave a dead zone at the back- definitely not the back. Whether this was the real reason or not, we enjoyed good wind for the next 90 mins until the wind stopped as quickly as it had started. It has to be said that this one of the things about this trip so far that has confounded us- here we are a 1000 or more miles from any form of land that could cause such a big change in such a small distance—so why does it happen?
 
(By the way, the sunset is beautiful, red sky back drop to at night and all of the scattered clouds—so red sky at night, sailors delight. Unless you are from Aus and then it is Red Sky at night, Shepherd’s delight. Don’t say you never learn anything here.)
 
When the wind died, you would think t hat the captain would once again dig deep into his bag of  nautical experience to find a way to overcome the trials by nature—and indeed he did—he gave up and started the engine! This was the first time we had used the engine since the first day of the rally, but, the forecast was for weak winds in this sector and we had the choice of rolling around for another few hours or getting out of dodge and finding some wind.. which we did.
 
This brings us to our slightly embarrassing  moment- after announcing the party and sending out the invites, ordering the food from the caterer, booking the DJ and stocking the bar- -we have had to put our “half way there” party clothes back in the closet because of the slow progress yesterday. We will, however, be hoping to celebrate tomorrow.. you are still welcome to attend.
 
“I forgot to mention that during last night’s passage, Mike had a close encounter of the baline kind—apparently, around 3:00 am, a whale surface about 20 meters from the boat and cleared his blow hole so he could breath. AS you may know this is quite a loud event so consider how quiet it is at night and despite the moon getting ever larger, it was pitch black  because it was behind clouds there is very little you can see when looking out onto the sea. Then out of no where you get this very loud noise- -kinda like someone sneaking up on you when you are watching a horror movie and yelling “boo!”. It took an hour or two before Mike could get his pulse back down to normal.
 
We didn’t mention that yesterday we were determined to get Izzy back into service- just the thing she needed after the injury suffered the day before. It must have been a sign that it was not a good day to fly her because after taking down the main, its preventer, the genny and its barber hauler, rerunning the guys and control lines for Izzy, the wind gods turned the wind dial up to between 20 and 25 kn which is much too strong to launch her. So back to the wing-on-wing that I mentioned earlier. This morning, we had perfect conditions for Izzy and happily launched her mid morning (we don’t do anything very early lest we disturb the slumber of our ship mates who were on the late watches). And she has been taking us directly on our route all. Welcome back Izzy! We are going to continue to fly her through the night (we never learn do we?) but it would seem our biggest challenge is not enough wind- she stops having fun around 5- 6 knots and wants to be put away. So far so good, but, with the 3/4 full moon out tonight we should be able monitor her and put her away should it be necessary.
 
With the big improvement in the weather, the flattening of the seas and the fact we are running down wind, we have opened the lanai. For those of you not so familiar with the Leopard 44 ....
 
oops, just got called the stern of the boat to look at the moon- scattered cloud, reflection on the water—a bit of a wow moment.
 
... back to our regular drivel.. anyways, out boat has a seating area in the front (if you are really bored, google a picture of the Leopard 44) – we love it as it gives another seating area which helps if you are at anchor as it faces the wind so is cooler on hot nights, and also when you are docked in a marina, it give you privacy. It also gives you sweeping views of the ocean as you sail, provided it is warm enough and you are not getting inundated with spray. Tonight we have officially opened the lanai and enjoyed both happy hour and dinner. I am also sitting there typing the blog.
 
For the past 8 days we have been moaning to ourselves, that this is not what the brochure had promised. We had signed up based upon the the pictures of happy, smiley faces with serene waters and blazing sun in the background. Ours so far has been more on the cool, wet and rocky nature. Today, however, we know where the brochure pics were taken. We have enjoyed a beautiful day of sailing, colourful sunset and an amazing moon. Sign me up!
 
Tonight’s culinary corner: dinner featured the fish that  Bill had caught yesterday, couscous with dried apple, broccoli and carrots. Very tasty and very good for us as well.
 
One last parting thought, we have not seen another boat for just over 4 days- not by sight, AIS or radar- nor any contact by VHF. We are, however, very ,much enjoying your emails, however long or short and mail call in the morning is a highlight for us.
 
We wish you the best and hope you are well,
 
The crew of Libeccio


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