Sunday, 3rd October 2010 (Day 7 at Sea)
Total distance from Coco's Islands to Maritius...........................................2,313 n miles
Distance travelled to date.......................................................................1,250 n miles
Distance to destination ......................................................................... 1,063 n miles
09.00hrs Radio Net :- operators of the radio today is Lady Ev and most boats responded giving their current positions.
Again today, we have made ground on all boats in the fleet.
10.00hrs We reefed more sail as the wind increased. We were now past 1/2 way to our ultimate destination of "Port Louis" Mauritius, progress was excellent, having averaged just over 200 miles per day since we left the Cocos Islands, last Monday.
Aileen broke a tooth, but TG, it is not causing any grief at present.
When all was settled down, we set up a goose winging arrangment on board again. The genoa out on the spinnaker pole to port, with the Main and Staysail out to starboard. The Staysail plays a great role here, as it helps keep the boat much more stable than it would otherwise be........ Keep it in tight if necessary.
Midday, we had a light snack, as we tend to eat dinner during mid afternoon. This fits in much better with our routine and we eat in daylight. Shortly after, we spotted a pod of Minke Whales diving through the massive waves, they were surfing down inside the front of the waves very close to the boat and it truley was a magnificant sight. They remained around the boat for at least 25 minutes.
Minke Whales :- Length 32' to 35' depending if male or female, the female being the larger of the two.
Weight.......................20,000 lbs (9,200 kg)
There are a number of different species of Minke whale, including the Dwarf Minke Whale, and the Antartic Minke Whale, both of which inhabit these waters at this time of the year and are known to swim alongside yachts, mostly out of curiosity. These are obviously what we saw beside and around us. These Whales look much more like huge Dolphins than our impression of what a Whale looks like, and are coloured dark grey on top with white undersides. Their swimming in the waves, again was much more like the way Dolphins swim around the boat.
16.00hrs Dinner today consists of Bangers and Mash with baked beans, so whats new, except the bangers (sausages) were Australian beef ones and lamb ones, now they were big bangers and while the were cooking, skipper noticed a blister on one of them. Ahhh sure, I will poke that with the sharp knife, well I'll be damned, it spat out a huge squirt of fat, out across the cooker, across the spice rack, up over the port hole and across the ceiling, the fat was everywhere... Idiotttttttt, ohhhhhhh, ahhhhhhhhhh! It took longer to clean up the mess than dinner took to cook. Try and do all this while holding onto your pants as the boat rolls voilently from side to side, the crown jewls could get damaged here very quickly. But in the end, it all tasted great!!!
The great about feeding the crew one good meal a day is they are ravenous by the time they get fed and appreciate anything served up, even if half of it is still on the ceiling......This will be known as the day the Bangers spat back...
Later, as the wind began its cycle upwards and now blowing 36knots + we surfed down a wave an the incredible speed of 14.9 kknots, the best we ever had before was 14 when we were doing the ARC, now these flashes of speed only last seconds and have only occured 2 or 3 times in the last 23,000 miles. However, what makes this event interesting is we were well reefed down, with more than 2 reefs in all sails.
21.00hrs We covered 112 miles in the last 12 hours, great going and most unlikely to ever be repeated, again well reefed down.
Night watches :- 22.00hrs / 00.00hrs...................................Skipper
00.00hrs / 02.00hrs....................................Neil
02.00hrs / 04.00hrs....................................Terry
04.00hrs / 06.00hrs....................................Aileen
06.00hrs / 08.00hrs....................................Skipper
That's it for now from surfers paradise.
Signed :- Stephen Hyde (Skipper)