The "trade winds" are winds that at this time of year blow from east to west 12-20 degrees north of the equator (Northern hemisphere). Sailors take advantage of this when crossing the Atlantic from east to west. This year the "trades" have not developed as expected and we are experiencing winds in the opposite direction, in other words directly against us. We may have to drop down to as low as 12 - 13 degrees to find winds in the "right" direction however these are currently very light.
Siri Ros has for the past few days battled with the winds trying to make headway westwards towards St Lucia. We have encountered strong winds and high seas. The motion onboard has been such that 3 of the crew have developed sea sickness, they are now slowly recovering as we have decided to head further south to make life for us all more pleasant.
We have fun onboard Siri Ros but we also have responsibilities; each crew member has a designated task such as monitoring of water on board, sorting and packing refuse, weather, communications, electronics, medic, tactics, navigation, fishing etc. We have a 3 hourly night watch system when two crew members keep a look out for other vessels and to ensure that the collision at sea regulations are followed, so we don't bump into anyone.
We have galley (kitchen) and cooking duties whereby two crew dream up and prepare the meals for the rest of the crew for a day. Meals are prepared taken into account the sea state, it is difficult to cook when the kitchen is at 45 degree angel and moving violently from side to side and up and down. The cooker is gimballed, meaning it is moving with the motion of the boat, so we can use the cooker even at high seas. We get served various concoctions from a bowl of something hot served in the cockpit to a proper sit down 3 course meal with candle light and wine, some are culinary delights others are not.
Andy is our master fisherman, the idea is that you order whatever you wish from nature's larder and then he springs into action. In reality, you get what you get and often that is nothing. To be fair we have had several meals from the sea; Mahi Mahi a large bright green fish.
On watch the other night a fish dropped straight into the cockpit and started flapping around gasping for water, this was completely without Andy's help. These are flying fish and they occasionally fly straight onto the boat. They do look rather surprised as they land on board, the possibility must be virtually nil for them to land on anything else but the sea. I've been told that they are nice for breakfast but as they are small you will need a cockpit full to feed this crew. The flying fish was lucky on this occasion and I picked it up and threw him back in.
Its hot, we have many portals and windows that we can open to let fresh air through, unfortunatly it also lets sea water in. While sleeping Andy and Frankie got a good soaking when leaving the hatch in the cabin just open a little tad as the bow of the boat got submerged in high seas. Their cabin is now sodden along with their belongings. Sea water has a high concentrate of salt that stops items from drying properly. Salt impregnated material remains damp. We dont have spare fresh water for rinsing so this has to wait for another couple of weeks.
On a medical note we have developed a new blende of wine with anti diuretic properties( for the more elderly of the crew ), using wines containing grapes from the pino noir range.We have named it ..........
Wait for it....
PI NO MORE !!!.
All the best to all you land folks
Liz
Skipper Siri Ros