28/11/2016
Almost half way through to Saint Lucia and we experienced everything from very light winds, when every 0.1 kn speed gain was hoorayed by all on deck, to strong 32kn gales very useful to set up new “speed record” club: 11 kn, 12 kn… and, finally, 16 kn club (with only one proud and, probably, lonely member though).
This day contained everything from sun shine to tropical rainfall. As rain can be seen miles away, the upcoming grey gloomy clouds were noticed far ahead. As most of us never been in such a weather discussion caused lots of amusement. Finally, when the rain arrived (or rather we arrived to the rain), some people had their showers on the deck with excuse of “broken watermaker”, which was fixed by that time, by the way. Below the deck this foam party sounded more like ballet dance performed by baby elephants with equally joyful noises. No need to mention companionway looked like there was rain too. The watch, which had to stay on deck from 4 to 8 pm looked just a little bit less than happy, in their foul weather jackets, and, by mystery coincident, shorts. No wind, gloomy pinkish shadow and heavy rain (by my measures about 2 mm/5 mins), what else can you ask for? No surprise, that number of coughs per minute on the boat increased and can be heard every now and then.
Foodwise, we are trying to be ahead of nature, hence, consume vegs and fruits before they rot (not always successfully), as a result we get curries with unexpected ingredients and apples overload. In the meantime “banana experiment” was a success and 16 bananas were ripened, thanks to scientific approach, couple of days ahead of their comrades, still green in the sail locker.
The occasional flying fish still causes a stir on the deck, especially, because some people expected them to flap their fins while in the air. Well… flying fish glide, just 50-60 cm above the water surface. Next step is to get flying fish on board for closer examination. According to knowledgeable sources, this type of fish begins smelling disgusting already on its way to the deck. Cannot wait to see amount of hilarity it will cause.
Twinkling diamonds on a black velvet sky , the night skies are truly breathtaking .Stargazing is a great pastime for the long night watch hours, led us to the game of “name your own constellation”, we ended up with “deck chair”, “shopping trolley”, “ fly swatter and “the “elevator”. Orion and Betelgeuse (aka Beetlejuice) are still the most recognisable constellation and star, our attempts to find Ursa minor are still ongoing…Tony continues to guide our night time education, but we now realise that we have exhausted his “Fisher Price book of stargazing” knowledge!!
YD, watch B
29/11/16
0740 UT (Skipper/Mate time) 0440 Crew/boat time
current speed 0.8 knots. Main and poled out Yankee 1 constantly flapping and crashing loudly in the tiny air flow and small waves – similar effect as the Chinese Water Torture techniques. Been almost dead in the water since yesterday afternoon. Ricky and I and whichever watch is on duty have had bursts of activity to try and squeeze anything out of the sails. Just before I arrived on watch it seems the wind changed and to keep course (anything south or west is acceptable at this point!) Ricky gybed the boat with the help of Peter, John and Bill…and the order of “the doughnut” coming from Tomasz on the helm. On doing so the wind yet again shifted and a whole pirouette was completed – I think he was just bored and did it for fun.
Looks like it could be a long day sailing wise…but a fun one as we have our half way fancy dress party J
Kirstie Rowe