Sonas - blog 21 to 23 Nov
Sunday 21st November
After a final tidy and a brief sailing practice Sonas, captained by Dave and crewed with George, Laurie, Carol and Ross split the starting line and shortly made it into 9th position in the cruising division. Amid a myriad of colourful spinnakers, boats of every shape and size, helicopters and fire boats, Sonas heroically struggled with the light tail winds, blue kite flying high. Although the lighter, sleeker boats took advantage of the conditions, we kept the spinnaker up throughout the night - winds picked up from around 1am and we found ourselves retaking the lost positions sailing as deep down wind as possible. As the night progressed so did Sonas, lit up by a startling full moon, the last slither of land fading away with the familiar orange glow of street lamps.
Monday 22nd November
Choosing to use the tail winds to continue the push South, rather than heading West we made steady progress through the day, keeping as low as possible. In the afternoon we were caught by a Swan named Star Cross making good use of the wind and its symmetrical kite; after exchanging pleasantries over the VHF we soon realised that both boats had been kept in Dunstaffnage Marina (Oban, Scotland) over the summer months. Both crews were adamant that although we missed the freezing headwinds and driving rain of the West coast of Scotland, the Atlantic weather with its warm tail winds and clear, blue skies were making a fine substitute!
Around midnight as we were sailing, we were treated to a magnificent spectacle of jumping fish. Probably around 5 foot long, we were first alerted to their presence on hearing them slap back into the water off the Starboard bow. After witnessing the size of the fish and their penchant for almost landing on our deck, we made sure that we were safely clipped in and prepared to be broadsided by the creatures! Later into the display, dolphins were sighted, possibly the reason why the fish were prepared to chance landing on our foredeck.
Tuesday 23rd November
Another beautiful sunrise over the Atlantic. turning the might a thousand colours before the orange orb of the sun restored the familiar blue sky. Sailing westward to take advantage of the Easterly winds, the spinnaker (which had been flying since day 1) decided to wrap itself around and twist into a useless clump. After we took the kite down and George battled to unwind the mess, we put up the headsail and jibed to face South West, heading towards the Cape Verdes. Another beautiful days weather, with a lovely organised following sea!
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