12 March 2010
When you have had a day of sailing at speeds of ten to ten and a half knots then to idle along at between five or six knots just does not seem good enough. That is what happened yesterday morning as I began my watch. Overnight we had been a group of three, Brown Eyed Girl who we had not seen since the previous day, Dreamcatcher and ourselves. Not long after sunrise Brown Eyed Girl suddenly accelerated and shot off over the horizon with Dreamcatcher not far behind.
Poor Voyageur was left high but not quite dry. I have decided that Voyageur has a mind of her own and it is she who decides what speed we are going to go. It was as if she was in "irons", slow sluggish, awkward, a bit like me for the first half hour when I come up on watch. Of course it had nothing to do with my poor sail trim. Something had to be done. The mizzen staysail came out of the deep recesses of the cockpit locker for the very first time. Like a small spinnaker in red, white and blue. With the wind a little forward of the beam it did not achieve quite what we had hoped for in terms of speed but as Marie of Dreamcatcher said over the VHF radio, "my don't you look pretty". This morning there are just two of us, Dreamcatcher and Voyageur each enjoying our own little space on the ocean.
Every morning David does his rounds on the deck checking that everything is in good order while at the same time clearing the decks of any marine life that has come aboard in the night. Flying fish are always around but we have never come across so many squid. We heard someone say they had had around fifty squid but with our high freeboard our best total to date is six squid and three flying fish. I have read that flying fish are delicious to eat. Looking at these thin bony bodies with their spiky wings does nothing for my appetite. Certainly not when we have yummy lamb chops in the freezer. The squid lying there with their baleful pop out eyes tempt us neither. I will keep the frying pan for omelettes and stir fry's. So they are smartly despatched overboard back to the food chain where they rightly belong.
Susan Mackay