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Libeccio - Libeccio Blog, Monday Dec 1st.- its our one week anniversary.



In today’s blog: Oh, what a night!; Christmas Carols;a different type of wine glass; Izzy gets a make over; we are having a whale of a time; Beware the fish of the Atlantic;
 
There are sometimes when you look back over a period of time and wonder “did we really do all of that?”—this past 24 hours was just that for us- very busy indeed. It all started off so innocently...
 
Inspired by one of the best days of sailing we had ever experienced with just Izzy and a weather forecast that looked friendly, we took a big step and decided to sail over night with just Izzy up. We had not considered this until now as it takes some level of confidence and competence to sail a parasail at night. It is not the type of sail that can be managed effectively by one person, so that if it needed to be taken down, then the whole boat would have to be involved. Having said that, we are currently trying to get more West than South right now and Izzy is the best sail we have to do this. The winds were brisk (15 – 20 knots, occasionally slightly higher), the seas were moderate- 1 –2 meters and the weather was to be patchy cloud. For Mr. I am Lucky Clare and the Captain, who were on the 19:00 – 22:00 and 22:00 –01:00 respectively, it was a treat- the half moon in the sky provided enough light so that we could see the sail to trim it and the seas were really moderate. When Bill came on for his watch from 01:00- 04:00, all heck broke loose- the weather deteriorated to a point that made the previous evening’s Squall Ball a purely amateur hour. As the clouds filled in, the night became so black that you could not see the water and the waves that were about to hit you and, more importantly, you could not see the sail so that you couldn’t easily trim. In order to avoid the worst of the squalls, it was necessary to take evasive manoeuvres which are relatively limited with a sail such as Izzy flying. Bill experienced the strongest winds but was able to “bob and weave” like the best of the NY Giants running backs (OK, so they aren’t doing so well this year, Bill was still great). Jane followed Bill when she came on for her 04:00 – 07:00 watch and engaged in the battle. Tough as nails, she stood out on the hull, clipped on to the helm, in the rain, holding our search light on the sail to then time the trimming of the sails which was necessary when the wind direction changed each time s a squall came whistling through. By the time it was back to Mr. I am Lucky Mr Clare, the winds had moderated, the squalls became less frequent and as it was day light it was much easier to trim the sails. We had a very tired boat by sunrise. Hey, this wasn’t in any brochure that we had read!
 
To help us feel better, we took the lead from our American friends and as we had enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner all ready, we declared that Christmas season is now upon us and we started playing Christmas Carols! In this case, it was the recording of the Christmas Spectacular from Radio City Music Hall- one of our favorite things to do during the holiday season when we lived in NY.
 
Just when we were feeling relaxed and looking forward to the day, The God of Pushing Your Luck Too Far (yes, there is such a thing), decided to test us just a little more and while we were sailing with just Izzy up (you would have thought we would have learnt by then), the winds shifted, the boat surfed down one swell,  a gust of wind came up and Izzy decided to protest our non alcohol policy by winding herself around the rope holding her up (a halyard to you boaties out there) in the perfect shape of a wine glass. Despite our best efforts, the 20+ knot wind at the time ensured that we were unable to get Izzy back to her normal shape and so we decided to bring her down. This is when the mischevious nature of TGOPYLTF truly came into its own- he decided to jam the “sock” that we use to bring down over Izzy about three quarters of the way down- tantalisingly close, but, excruciatingly difficult to finish the last bit. While Jane and Bill cheered their support, Mike and Kevin went to the front of the boat and as the bow pitched up and down, they experienced the sensation of weightlessness that only astronauts can appreciate. In a grim replay of a similar situation they faced in Turkey (that is another story) they wrestled with (the only partially closed) Izzy until finally even TGOPYLTF took pity and let them bring the sail under control.
 
We are not finished with this yet, as in a final twist to this (rather longer than expected) entry into the blog, TGOPYLTF decided that Izzy should also pay and in addition to the twist  there was also 30 cm tear in her. Now we can all relate to getting the first scratch in your new car, that first wine stain in a new rug, scuffs on new shoes, the first time your children use felt tips for their art work, but, on your newly painted walls- we know it is inevitable, that it is repairable, but, it still hurts. Such was the sentiment of the Capt as he, with a small tear in his eye, carefully carried the wounded Izzy into the front seating area and gently laid her down to rest. By this time, the whole crew required a rest, but, we needed to get power again and so raised the main sail and genny (remember from yesterday that this is the sail in the front of the boat, more formally known as the genoa) and put them in the classic “wing on wing” formation so that we could continue our “Quest to find West, with out too much South” (pretty catchy, look for pins and bumper stickers in our soon to arrive on-line store). Once that was completed, the slightly weary crew did what all good Brits do in situations like this- they have a cuppa (tea, normally) and something to eat. There is no situation that a cuppa cannot bring new perspective to.
 
Following this brief respite, the surgery was prepared for the de-twisting and suturing of the wound to Izzy- the table in the cockpit was cleared off, the fishing equipment (more about this later) of Bill’s was stowed and Izzy was brought carefully through the saloon.  It took all four of us most of the afternoon to figure out how to untwist Izzy and to locate and close the tear. To do this required that we take the whole sail out of its “sock” and then put it back in again- quite a feat when you consider that the volume of the sail and that the sock itself is over 21m long! Once everything was back in place, it took all four crew to carry Izzy (much like the dragons that you see in Chinese New Years parades) from the back of the boat to the bow of the boat where we have the sail storage locker. We are looking forward to flying her tomorrow (said rather optimistically).
 
It was about this time that eagle eyes Mike shouted “aaarrrr Mateys, whale ho!” or something like that- we thought he was joking until we looked less than 10 m from the boat and saw a whale. As it swam passed us, we could see that it was around 9 – 10 m long (Libeccio is only 12M and was feeling decidedly a little small at the time) and was having a good old look at us. Shortly after that, another whale surfaced just behind the boat, swam along side and then turned away revealing a whitish underbelly. We apparently were in the middle of a very large pod of whales which we enjoyed watching go by for over half an hour. They seemed to be as curious about us as we were of them with many swimming along side Libeccio before turning away. We weren’t sure what that meant so just to be safe, we started the engine and idled it while in gear just to make sure that they did not confuse our white underbelly for one of their own. What we really enjoyed was watching them ride just under a breaking wave/swell- just as we body surf, so were they. Amazing. Until this time, the only wild life we had seen since leaving Las Palmas had been a hand full of flying fish.
 
This brings us to the questions of the day: what is the correct way to describe a group of flying fish? Is it a school, as is used normally for fish; a flock, as is used normally for anything that flies; a squadron (my personal favorite) or? The second question is, what type of whales did we see today? They were not Orcas or humpbacks, but, do not know the name. Please help-they were so beautiful to see- send thoughts to [email protected].
 
With the arrival of the whales, our intrepid fisherman (Bill) started to slowly reel in his hooks. This was to avoid accidentally hooking a whale as it swam by- could you imagine how bad a day you would have if that was to occur? Fortunately, TGOPYLTF was on coffee break and  nothing such like that happened. However, it was during the retrieval of one of his sets, that he noticed something at the end- probably garbage was the general consensus. Not so, our dear readers, it was in fact a proper fish.. 14 inches long and “according to its bone structure” (a true quote from Mike), very likely from the mackeral family. It certainly made very good eating! Inspired, Bill has sent a warning to all edible fish between here and St. Lucia—he is after them!
 
So, after a tenuous start to the day, we ended on a very high note- the arrival of the whales made us realise what an amazing area we are travelling through and the fresh fish was the crowning touch on tonight’s meal of tuna, homemade sweetcorn fritters, rice and greek salad. To finish it off,  Jane made spiced oranges with cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves spread over pound cake. Yum!  
 
Next trip we are going to tow a smaller boat complete with all the necessary gym equipment to wear off all of the calories we are busily consuming.
 
We hope that you are well, but, also wishing ourselves an uneventful night of sailing!
 
Kind regards,
 
The Crew of Libeccio


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