Sabine - daily blog update for ARC boat Sabine (118) 4 Dec 2022

Hello interweb friends, Captain Stape on sail boat Sabine right here (///gloomiest.amplified.rhinos)
It’s Sunday morning and I’m tired as I was awoken several times during the night by the sound of Maria. (yes, we’ve officially changed Jenny’s name as she is a bit of a drama (faff) to turn on. There’s a 2 sided piece of A4 explaining how to turn her on, and that’s not even fully up to date since it was written by Richard back in May and additional steps have been added since). It seems we can get 3hrs motoring per 1hr of running Maria. Maria is positioned on the starboard side of the boat, near my perch and John and Richard’s cabin. All three of us didn’t get much sleep… I wonder if I can get parrot sized noise cancelling headphones? I saw Richard wearing his and was quite jealous.
As we awake I talk with Richard about his night watch. John and Richard were convinced that in the moonlight they could see a strange mist on the horizon. Like those horror or adventure stories where if you travel through the mist, you end up in a different time, or come across a completely hidden island. What an imagination!
Miss Atlantic is like a mill pond. Absolutely still, flat and glasslike. The fishing line is out as we are travelling so sedately.
We have boarders! There are 8 crane-type birds sitting on the bows. They arrived in the early hours on John’s watch and must be migrating as we’re a long way from land. I try talking to them, but it seems they don’t understand Parrot English. Unfortunately, without Internet my bird-talk translation app isn’t working so well either, so I try sign language instead, but they just ignored me and continued preening themselves. Maria is switched off but shortly afterwards the quiet is broken by the clickety-click of the fishing reel as line is being pulled out at a great rate of knots! Polina leaps into action and starts reeling it in. It’s clearly a large fish and it takes a while to bring it closer to the boat. When it gets near it starts swimming side to side near the surface, creating a wake similar to that you see in films being created by a monster or large shark just before it leaps and devours its prey. Polina reels it in closer, there’s speculation that it’s too big and strong to be a mahi-mahi, and maybe it’s a large tuna. Either way, Richard is keeping out of the way as John is filming and Kia is preparing to hoist the catch up onto the boat. We see it and it’s a monster! The worlds largest mahi-mahi! It is HUGE! And very, very wriggly as it’s pulled reluctantly towards the back of the boat. Kia is holding the line, trying to hook this monster with the gaff, but it’s heavy. As the fish is being pulled out of the water it fights back, thrashing wildly, and with a large flick of its tail, breaks the line near the lure and dives back into the water! You hear of fisherman’s tales, but this one really is ‘the one that got away’. Fortunately there are plenty of photographs and video to support this tale. If only we had more bandwidth to upload them. I’m afraid, my non-feathered interweb friends, you’ll have to wait before we can post up pictures. (Which might give us time for a little photoshop enhancement ;-)
Microwave update!! (I know you’re all hooked!) The microwave is eased back in position, but the repairs to the sole remaining knob didn’t hold and it broke again on first use, and it seems the internal damage caused by the ‘pliers incident’ is greater than originally thought. Whilst it can be used with ‘a gentle touch’, a certain crew member, and she shall remain nameless, is banned from touching and using the patient until a further open-microwave operation and a suitable recovery time has passed. This means moving the patient from the galley back to the operating table at some point in the near future.
Polina washes the solar panels, swearing at our guests for pooping on them (she didn’t use the new swear word she learnt yesterday though as it’s not really appropriate for birds). The birds realise the jig is up and scarper, flying away west in a V formation. Kia wonders how they decide who takes the lead: ‘Hey Burt, it’s your turn at the front now.’ ‘Okeydokey, I’ll take the next 30 mins, and then Fred can take over when I waggle my wing.’
It’s Richard’s birthday on Monday, and you’re all invited to the party. Kia asked him what he’d like for a present. ‘A shower!’ He replies, so extra water is made just for him. Ok, not *just* for him, but there is now plenty for him to have another shower.
The majority of the wind is still away on holiday, so John and Richard undertake the faffage duties up front to prepare the spinnaker. It’s John’s first time with a spinnaker in a sock and bucket, but everything goes well and it’s hoisted and ‘sort of’ inflates. The next few hours are spent playing the ‘keep the spinnaker inflated’ game as there is so little wind. John turns 10deg this way, 5deg that, trying to catch every breath of wind to keep the spinnaker powered up. He names the spinnaker ‘Pete’, and states that ‘Pete is not happy spinnaker!’. Eventually the motor is also used to help us to try and maintain around 4knots. Electric propulsion maybe green (cough, Maria, cough), but it’s not very powerful.
Maria is started occasionally just to help keep the propulsion batteries topped up. Whilst we’re making plenty of solar in this gorgeous sunshine, it’s not enough to charge the propulsion batteries. Especially when the rice cooker is cooking some potatoes for later.
There’s a debate between John and Polina about the best classical composer. Polina thinks Tchaikovsky, John thinks Beethoven, or maybe Bach.
It really is hot and sunny today. Kia goes round the boat with a can of WD40 to try and silence some of the squeaks and groans that Sabine makes as we’re slowly making progress.
Exciting news: we’re defrosting the galley fridge-freezer. It’s an exciting day here on Sabine... As the fridge is emptied it reveals inordinate amounts of cheese! So much cheese! Of all types: Camembert, feta, Philadelphia, all sorts! SO MUCH CHEESE! Now all we need is some fresh bread to make cheese sandwiches. To be fair, we do have plenty of flour tortilla wraps. And some of them in the opened packets aren’t green yet.
I’m no culinary expert, but I do try and avoid eating stuff that’s green and furry.
The wind dies and the spinnaker is doused and put away by John and Richard. It’s a shame as I quite like watching the brightly coloured geometric shapes on that sail. Reminds me of my own bright red plumage.
As the day draws on, the crew are relaxing, reading or listening to podcasts. Kia prepares the evening meal of meatballs, veg and rice. The propulsion motor whines, propelling us along at a steady, if somewhat sedate pace. But at least we’re moving forwards.
The sea is like a mirror. No wind, no ripples. Maria is running as the sun is getting low. The noisy, low thrdddddd drone of the diesel engine escapes the saloon into the cockpit. I fear we’re going to hear that more than once overnight.
The solar panel still hasn’t been moved, but there’s always tomorrow! The excuse today: it was too hot to be on the saloon roof.
Richard has said it would be nice if we could also have some wind for his birthday - not the farty funny ha ha kind, but the stuff that makes sail boats actually sail. Kia says that when Richard gets up tomorrow, there will be 10-15knots worth, according to the latest download on the GuessWind app. I just hope it’s in the right direction. We’re over 2/3rds of the way across and we definitely do not want to go backwards! Tomorrow could be a good day if the wind arrives.
Kia puts on his life jacket ready to take watch, and wonders why the straps that secure the jacket underneath you constantly get longer or shorter. Richard has the same problem and the same question. Maybe it’s one of life’s great mysteries, or maybe one of my interweb friends could offer an explanation?
And as night draws in, and John goes to sleep for a couple of hours, Maria is brought back into service. We seem to have synchronised the starting of Maria with exactly when John tries to get some kip. Sorry John!
This is Capt. Stape signing off with 834nm to go (yes, a very sedate day!). Ciao ciao squawk!