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Misty Mhor - Misty’s Mini Mutiny Wednesday December 1st.



Tuesday lunchtime and we are now mid Atlantic (27 deg 01 N, 034 deg 32 W) so we need to adjust our watches. We kept the ships clock on GMT as the radio meetings and sextant readings are based on this. We are all now two hours behind London. The Capt had wanted to do this a couple of days ago but faced a mini mutiny from the crew who preferred the old system and starting our night time watches at 22.00. We will see how the new time works out.

We spotted a squall creeping up on us earlier. Fairly low cloud base so we weren’t expecting anything serious. It passed us by with just a light shower and 5 knot increase in gusts. We did track it on the radar though and it showed up in red, it was also travelling at 74 mph. We can use this info at night when the squalls aren’t easy to see. Apart from that, the sky is blue and the warm sun is out. In contrast we hear to the weather back home. The ocean is also very blue and incredibly deep, 5 Km to the ocean floor. That’s a lot of water.

Balancing our provisions is a real skill. We have made deep inroads into the fresh fruit and veg piles. Fiz the Wiz has daily inspections of the stores before deciding on the feast of the day. Lunch was Spanish tortilla with a salvage salad containing rice, celery, radishes and baby tomato’s, with optional aubergine.

The classic Spaghetti Bol for dinner taken on the saloon table for once, as Mrs Squall and her offspring keep making surprise visits. The constant rolling and bucking is getting to Dugald so he declined to join us downstairs.

As the night watch bed start there is no change in the weather, mainly 20 knots but occasional 30 plus gusts, which necessitates rolling in the genoa for a time. Still averaging around 7 knots boat speed though.

The radar is currently showing no squalls. I tried to photograph it but as it bounces around so much I only get a blur. We also have two blurry vessels passing either side of us. I can see a glow on starboard as one is coming towards us, which turns out to be a super trawler. The other on the port side is an ARC boat.

News Splash: A wave has just broken over our stern and landed on me.

I’m going to need this two hour watch to dry out. I would normally be sat safely under the canopy but I’m behind the wheel watching the radar. We can pick up squalls from 12 miles away but they are on us in only 10 minutes. Not enough time to finish my salty cup of tea accompanied by a Tunnocks Caramel wafer! Dugald informs us that Mr Tunnock is still sailing his yacht which goes by the name Lemarac, the more observant reader would have spotted that this is Caramel spelt backwards.

Relieved to be be relieved at 04.00 I past on the squall spotting duties to Alistair and headed for the relative stability of my lea cloth bunk. These persistent little blighters need birth control as they are queuing up to chase us over the ocean.

Waking up this morning I find that the top team have even put their foul weather gear on, more reminiscent of Cuan Siar than the Caribbean Sea.
Alan
Picture of Capt Jon and Fiona dressed up.



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