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La Cigale - Day 2 - 20 November - Sails away!



Day 2 - 20 November

I was on dawn watch, marvelling at transition of phosphorescence in water to glow of ruby orange rising above the horizon. Previous night had been strong winds (rising to almost 30 knots), that had come back down to about 18 by morning.

A day of heaving ropes and even more heavily heaving stomachs, with everyone sick bar Helen and Catherine. "This too shall pass" is my life-jacket mantra! Francis suffers the most, but is already checking energy generating from solar panels and calculating how long it will take his computer to charge, so well in the way to finding his sea legs.

We had fun playing around, having taken down the jib, with our two larger fore sails. The gennaker is bespoke, white with a red rim, very Swiss. Stunning, but unlike the mainsail, also by Incidence, the threads are beginning to fray already. The other sail is like a mini spinnaker, blue with GBR printed on it. Xavier bought it from Matts on AMARONE the other day, and we're very grateful for the back up.

Had a lovely siesta on the trampoline and came to to find Helen spotting a shark fin straight ahead. I only caught it out of the corner of my eye, but it looked big - excitement of the day!

Meatballs, rice and (sick as) green peas, for those who could eat for supper that evening. Yes, life has already started revolving around talking about what we eat, even when we can't really stomach it!

Stunning night for looking up at the Milky Way. A wee bit too snug under a romance of stars and a cosy blanket, I drifted off to sleep at the helm within five min of taking the 9pm watch. For the record, that has NEVER happened to me before - so Xavier packed me off to bed and took over. By rights I should have been keelhauled but luckily a cat doesn't have a keel, and it helps being married to the skipper...



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