Sh*tty days on the High Seas
It was a bit of sh*tty day today. The sailing initially was great - calm seas and reasonable winds over the stern as we moved along at almost 8 knots in 12 knots of wind. The real problem was that the smell coming from the head (aka the toilet) was getting worse and worse everytime someone needed to use it.. We debated the source of the smell for a couple of days and eventually concluded that the pipe taking the waste from the tank to the stopcock was blocked..All the potential solutions discussed produced much wincing from the crew. Eventually Hugh suggested poking a long rod (aka the boat hook) down the deck waste access hole and wiggling it about until the blockage was cleared. After some gentle wiggling a satisfying brown discharge at the back of the boat appeared and Hugh started smiling as he could ‘feel’ the blockage release. It worked. Not everything is plain sailing at sea but even shitty days can have happy endings..
This afternoon we hit the lighter winds the weather charts have been forecasting. We headed south to try and avoid the light winds predicted on the more direct route and hopefully this pays off. Tash has an online job interview on the 7/8th of December which she is keen to attend. So we will probably end up motoring for the last few days if we are becalmed. I think when we all signed up for the atlantic crossing we were expecting high winds, big rolling seas and occasional driving rain. Here we are in calm seas hoping for more wind and rolling waves to push us along..Until then we have the music blasting out in the cockpit to accompany our card games. You wont be suprised to learn that Imara has taught us all to play Shithead!
We had a great start to our fishing tally but the pace has dropped off in the last few days. We have had a few monsters (honest!) get away which has been disappointing. This morning we had a real fighter on the hook for 10-15 minutes and while we were working out the best way to cook it…it got away. There’s lots of sea grass in the water now which keeps clogging up our lures. It would be great to catch one or two decent fish before we get to St Lucia. We need some bragging rights. At the moment each mouthful of fish we have eaten on passage has cost us a fortune. Luckily fishing is not our day job..
We have all started to talk through our plans for the first few days in St Lucia. We are getting tantalisingly close now. Only another 4-5 days before the Pina Colada’s start getting chased by some rum and washed down with some ice cold beer…the remaining zero zero beer we have on board will then be donated the the local AA group..
Kevin
About 170 miles covered in the last 24 hours.
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