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Taistealai - Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun



And also the crew of Tashy! Now that we are in the tropics, it feels like someone has turned up the heat! Sorry to complain, especially as we know those of you back home in the UK have been suffering from endless autumn gales and ceaseless rain, but here at midday the sun is relentless; any cloud crossing its rays is a welcome relief from the intensity. Yes, it is hot.

We do our best to shield ourselves from the power of the tropical sun; floppy hats galore and long sleeves are the rig of the day for the on-watch crew. Helen in particular has produced an array of impressive sun hats, her latest, her “tropical hat”, is bound with ribbons and shells, setting the mood for our Caribbean destination. Will had a “hatastrophe“ a few days ago and lost his prized wide-brimmed helming hat overboard. He has now brought out his reserve hat, an ex-safari floppy, complete with fold-up side flaps. Jem, as always supporting the sponsors, is proudly wearing his Makay Marina hat, a full brimmed Aussie sun protector, which was a gift from the marina team at Makay in Queensland. So far, the antipodean head-gear is proving very effective. Chris is also routing for sponsors, with a collection of baseball caps from Raymarine, Navionics and Parasailor.

Under the tropical sun, the ocean is taking on an intensity of colour undreamt of beneath our leaden British skies. Deep, deep blue waves crested by scudding white caps whipped up by the westbound tradewinds. Above us, the little puffy pillows of tradewind clouds have merged today into great mattresses of moisture, billowing into the air mass above us. So far today no squalls have struck us, all passing harmlessly to port or starboard.

An increase in wind strength last night, together with a lack of moon light, meant we opted for polled-out headsail and main; a safer if slower sail plan for the hours of darkness. At first light, the wind had eased and up went “big blue” our tradewind spinnaker once more. Big blue gives us better boat speed and less rolling than polled out headsails, but needs more concentration from the helm to get it flying. With spinnaker sailing, mistakes can be costly in terms of damage to people and boat gear. On this morning’s Group B radio net, several boats reported halyards parting and sails dropping unexpectedly to the deck or over the side. On Tashy, we drop and check our halyards each day for just this reason.

It is mid-afternoon now; the off-watch crew have taken to their bunks to catch up on sleep and the on-watch crew are sweltering under the sun.  It’s hot!

This is the crew of Taistealai signing off for another day at 17 30N 43 09W and 1044nm to run, which for those of you using the Fastnet Scale is just under two fastnets.

Chris, Helen, Will and Jem (and the Penguin).

02/12/2015



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