Tuesday 4th December – Paula Rosa
As usual a catch up on last night where best laid plans didn’t go quite to plan!!
I imagine you might be able to guess when I mention the word asymmetric! Sometimes decision making is quite difficult especially when many people have ideas, Chris likes going very fast, Wills like going very fast and David likes going very fast but in the right direction and on it goes…..being a democratic kind of boat we changed plans and decided to hoist the asymmetric for its final fling before dark , all went well until it was time to get it down. Blowing 20knots a huge amount of sailcloth and an infuriatingly perverse snuffer can quite rapidly lead to big problems - our first wrap around the forestay and a twist in the whole caboodle led to a loud expletive at the helm (those who know David, he is not known for foul language so you know its bad when it happens!!) a battle began on the foredeck with Pol, Sergio and Wills joined by new bow team member Pete, wrestling and thrashing with ropes and sail on the wet salty foredeck, more akin to standing on a wobble board! Nick managed the helm and yet more troops piled onto the foredeck, David suggested a letterbox drop (never heard the term before) but the lazy sheet was fed back to the cockpit and the cavorting princess had her skirts rapidly pulled in (that’s the asymmetric!)
Once all is stuffed into the sail bag and secured we go back to the original plan and the main and jib pull us along nicely. As you can imagine the sun has already said its goodbyes and the darkness rapidly approaches.
So much for a sedate night, although we go along nicely averaging 10knots the motion of the boat was very different. If you can splay yourself flat out across the bed you are relatively stable but if like me you like sleeping on your side, despite a lee board preventing one being tipped unceremoniously on the floor, crashing about from one side to another does not aid sleep, its going to be another one of those nights!!
Amazing stars once more and the ‘fireflies’ flitting tirelessly at our stern – beautiful!
Apparently lights were seen on the distant horizon during the night, our first company for a few days now and he didn’t hang around for long.
First light there are plans to unleash the asymmetric once again to increase our speed and point further downwind. Fortunately my watch starts at 7am so I’m up anyway, not so for the sleepy eyed bow team ( Pete is up there too). One and a half hours later the tangles and twists are sorted only to discover a hole in the sail! Most of the morning passes, patching and stitching, several more holes are also found, thought to be due to the snuffer and the shenanigans on the foredeck last night! Finally we are ready, everyone on tenterhooks that nothing more sinister is discovered as she is hoisted once more. We have a kite again albeit with some pretty raggedy patching.
The rest of the day has passed more peacefully and the chat goes on with the usual shall we go north west or southwest !!
Stunning colours tonight as the sun sets, the palest lilacy pink , we have just under 800 miles to go, St Lucia here we come.
With love and keep on trucking….
Dee