Thursday, 30th September 2010 (Day 4 at sea)
We had a terrible, terrible night, and so did most other boats.
We had rain squalls with winds of over 50 knots, very unusual for this area at this time of the year (whats that about timing!). Skipper had a good night rest while the rest shared the watches. Terry doing a lions share, well done Terry!
We actually had to get under the bunks in the fwd cabin and dig out the oil skins, which haven't been used for at least 18 months, mind you, we did not think we would ever require this all weather gear until we got back to Europe. Just goes to show, you never know when mother nature will throw something unusual at you.
New advice from Bruce, the weather man. He suggests now that we should go to 20 degrees South in an effort to avoid all the crap. But, but, we have already looked at our own grib file and are heading that way in any event.
09.00hrs Radio net :- We are the radio controller for today, so we managed with the help of other boats to get all boats positions logged. Eowyn seems to have a great radio system and always helps out to relay messages from one boat to another.
The weather improved as the day wore on, but no sunshine, or even a tiny bit of blue sky, nothing but misery, but better misery than last night.
We spent the day being busy at doing nothing, so nothing more to say about that. The wind eased back somewhat, so we rolled out some more sail to maintain our average boat speed.
Do you know something, we were just saying, we haven't heard a thing from Fats for yonks, will we have to get Marilyn to do a relay for us.
Dinner today by skipper was a goulash, it included lots of onions, pineapples, ham, and all served up with a cheese pasta.
The wind has settled down to a steady 30/35 knots SE and we are sailing along merrily on a port broad reach.
18.30hrs Night fell as usual and it was as black as the ace of spades. However, the moon will appear later, even if we cannot see it, it will brighten up the whole place around us.
21.00hrs A Lady had to do the Radio Net again, so we did a listening watch for 5 minutes, followed by a roll call, 80% responded and all seems ok. Skipper even managed to play a little bit of music from "Mise Eire" over the airwaves. This was prompted by our Scottish friends, Dave & Sue, on Voyageur who play the bagpipes on the SSB every now and then when its their turn to do Radio Net.
That's all for now.
Signed :- Stephen Hyde ( Skipper )
PS: Just finished stuffing myself with a Turkish Delight. Its much better than being "Sick of sailing" ha,ha,ha (...)