Sabine - saily blog update from ARC Sabine (118) 1 Dec 2022

Hello interweb friends, Captain Stape on sail boat Sabine right here (///hellbent.logic.subdues)
Over half way! Hopefully the miles will start to fall away faster as we get closer to our goal.
We laid out the table for the crew of Pelagria for the dinner date, but they never turned up. Just as well as the things laid out on the table didn’t stay on the table for very long before ending up all over the floor! It’s still a very roly-poly ride at the moment.
On the subject of Pelagria, they are still near us, matching our speed and direction. We’re slowly, ever so slowly, getting closer. In a few hours we might be able to see them through binoculars, provided we’re both at the crest of a wave at the same time.
Kia talks with Richard about the power situation as Richard starts his night watch. The house batteries are fully topped up, but the propulsion batteries are a little low, even after running Jenny. The reason? Someone (Richard, ahem!) forgot to stop the electrickery transfer from propulsion to house after Jenny was stopped last night. Oopsie! Ahh well, at least Otto will be kept well fed overnight. Afterwards, I hear talk of having to run Jenny again the following day.
Richard tells me that now we have a half moon, it’s easy to distinguish between sea and sky, instead of just staring out into pitch blackness. He sees an occasional silver bullet dive passed, and occasionally right across, the boat in the moonlight. The flying fish are out in force, so we’re expecting to have to remove plenty in the morning.
I asked each crew member if they do anything other than just watch the seas when on night watch. Here’s what they said:
Kia - listens to podcasts such as ‘This American life’, ‘The Moth’, ‘Freakonomics’ and some medical journals.
Polina - “I listen to podcasts of all sorts: comedy, engineering, a complete mix.”
Richard “I like to listen to music from my phone. A mix of 80s (obviously), and some albums purchased in the last decade or so as I’m modern, hip and down wid da kidz! Ha ha! Only one earpiece of course. Or I read my kindle if the seas are calm enough”
John - “I listen to Spotify, but the the first few nights only ‘the ketchup song’ would play. Thankfully it’s sorted itself out now and is playing what I’ve downloaded.”
The sea is so confused that it thinks it isn’t a sea at all, but in fact is a heavy weight boxer, and Sabine is it’s punchbag. Sabine is getting a pummelling for the third day running. Upper cut - bam! Left hook - wham! Jab jab jab - bish bash bosh! This makes sleeping extremely hard and all the crew are suffering.
The crew are saying to each other ‘don’t mention the microwave! Someone mentioned it once, but I think they got away with it…’ Yes, it’s still a topic of conversation, and shows no sign of abating.
There’s discussion over chocolate. Polina is worried that all the picnic bars have actually disappeared. She tells me she found one and hid it. Richard later tells me that he found a hidden picnic bar, and hid it further. I’m not sure Polina will be amused! Watch this space.
Pelagria call us, asking if we’ve seen the weather prediction and the large dead spot that looks to engulf the majority of the ARC in a couple of days. It seems that even those boats that are furthest south would still have to head even further south in order to avoid it. They tell us they have 2 days of motoring capacity. I hope that’s enough. I think we have a little more range (Kia thinks 400nm worth), but probably at a slower rate due to the electric propulsion. Hopefully we won’t need to use the propulsion at all, but we’re ready for it anyway. And I think a day or so of calm seas would be welcomed by all the crew at this stage.
Sabine is getting a wash as we sail through a squall. Polina has the brush out sweeping off the salt and fish scales that have accumulated around the helm.
And that’s about it as the day draws to a close, my non-feathered interweb friends. Darkness has fallen, much like the things that are falling off tables and shelves as we’re still being rocked, rolled and pummelled by this sea.
This is Capt. Stape signing off with 1099nm to go. Ciao ciao squawk!