First I need to set the scene for night sailing which
is, essentially, 12 out of every 24 hours. The moon was bright and had
only just started waning two weeks ago. Now, it has not only fully waned with no
sign of any waxing but has also stopped being nocturnal. We are therefore
dependent on star light, which is amazingly bright but significantly compromised
by the cloud cover. So, the upshot of all this is that we are sailing in a
pretty dark environment, using our instruments and keeping a sharp lookout for
squalls and other vessels.
Last night started off as usual with Nicholas on the
first watch but I couldn't sleep as the autohelm had started to complain about
the workload. This manifested as strange grating noises so we furled our
stay sail and reefed the genoa which was much appreciated as the workload
decreased and the noises reduced. However it did mean that we slowed down
somewhat.
Iona was on the second watch when the night sky glowed
orange for about 10 seconds. What appeared to be a flare, of immense brightness,
was visible to her north. The air was filled filled with a strange
crackling noise as the object burned up in the atmosphere and disappeared.
Initially unsure as to what she had witnessed she called for the rest of the
crew as she was well aware that if this was a flare we would have a duty to
respond. In fact, what she had seen turned out to be a meteorite and so she is
now one of the few people to have been fortunate enough to witness a meteorite
fall to earth.
Shortly after Iona's close encounter our GPS started to
misbehave. We appeared to be teleporting one mile north of our true position on
a completely random basis. The satellite accuracy had decreased from one metre
to 40 metres and there seemed to be a wide variation in our compass bearing and
speed over the ground. What could be causing this? Eventually we reduced
the culprit to three main possibilities;
1. The Russians had taken out the GPS satellites, which
was witnessed by Iona
2. Elon Musk had thrown a hissy fit and jammed his
competitors satellites
3. Boris Johnson had decided to execute Satellexit and
as British citizens we no longer had access to GPS
The third option seemed the most likely to the crew,
particularly with the UK losing access to the Galileo system.
Jono and I took the third watch. The following
is Jono's first hand account of what happened whilst I was completing the
log at the navigation station.
'The beast leapt out of the water like a tiger pouncing
on it's prey. It's mouth was wide open showing rows of razor sharp gnashers
glinting in the star light. My life flashed before my eyes. There was an
almighty bang, like a firework had just gone off as the monster fish smacked
into the side of the windscreen. The stunned fish had failed in it's attack on
me. It now lay, life extinct, on the deck. I was on high alert for further
attacks'
Editor's note: It has not been possible to verify Jono's
account but I have no reason to disbelieve him as the fish is dead on the deck
and there is a fishy smear on the windscreen.
By daybreak the GPS was working and the weather
was glorious so we set all the sails again and got Maalu IV back into her
groove. It has only taken us two weeks and 2000 miles of sailing to get her
sailing this well but to be fair the conditions over much of this voyage were
not conducive to experimenting with down wind sail plans. The staysail is
now funneling wind into the genoa which has stabilised beautifully and has
stopped the awful flogging. The mainsail remains boomed out on a
preventer. I have no idea what this sail plan is called so I have named it
'Goosewing Plus' or 'Maalu IV Groove'. We have made 176 miles over the last 24
hours and are now 750 miles from our destination - yippee we are three quarters
of the way there!
m_Maalu IV Groove