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Chance Encounter - Chance encounter Elan 434 - day 9 arc 2016 Squalls and fish!



Update Day 9: End of leg 1, exciting night, champagne sailing, and argument weather.

Well it's been some time since our last update, but it's has been a busy 48 hrs. On Saturday we finished what could be called the "first leg" of our passage - the stretch of sailing between the Canary Islands and a high pressure ridge that blocks the road to St Lucia about half way there. Navigator Doug has done an excellent job keeping us in good winds during this time, and we've gone fast and in the right direction over the past week. Unfortunately, we had to face the light and fluky airs of the high pressure at some point.

We were sailing west Saturday afternoon (Day 7) when the wind softened and died off. Leaving main and jib up, the crew tucked into a nice steak and pasta dinner down below as a light rain fell. Uncorking our first bottle of red to celebrate, we simultaneously uncorked a ferocious squall filled with lightning bolts and booming thunder. It was wine in the sink and all hands on deck to get the frightened sails under control. Pitch black was punctuated by flashes that illuminated Doug on the wheel doing his best "Perfect Storm" impression under sheets of rain and jokes from the rest of the crew. As the squall eased off and we began to tidy up we discovered Poseidon had not only given us a great light and sound show, but also our first TOOTHY PREDATOR!!!!!! Trailing two lures, we had caught what appeared to be a slender 2-foot long barracuda-looking thing that Rigs named "Bertie", and Adrian quickly released back into the ocean. Leaving the crackling/booming atomic bombs of the storm in our wake, near midnight we glided into the high on a whisper of wind.

This morning we woke up to "champagne sailing"....a steady 15knots of breeze with long swells, no chop, sunny skies and pointing directly at St. Lucia. We raised the gennaker (a downwind reaching sail) and enjoyed a fast and smooth 8kts of boatspeed. The birds returned too, low and fast over the water - none yet sitting on the mast mum! We had one bird - all white except for a yellow beak, long tail like the magpies in Calgary, but swept back wings, and face/beak a bit like a parrot's. It would circle the boat and then hover/stall over the fishing lures to eye them up. Can anyone help identify this bird? Also a number of flying fish recently.

Unfortunately this wind wasn't to last and by 4pm it again died to nothing. This gave us all the opportunity to clean up and do minor repairs in preparation for what we expect to be a windy week blasting towards St. Lucia. As is the case with our crew, we all greatly enjoy arguing about how these things must be done. There was an enthusiastic back and forth about sail repairs before we allowed Adrian (a professional sailmaker) to finally get down to work, and a good-natured 2hr argument on whether to replace a worn mainsheet block shackle, which was finally replaced in less than ten minutes. Of course, if you find someone agreeing with your point of view, the unstated rule is that you should immediately change to the opposing opinion. Great fun with all this time on our hands! Rob takes particular pleasure in winding Rigs up.

That's about it for today from the crew of Chance Encounter. Much love to friends and family.


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