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Starblazer - 20/01/2016 – Leaving St Helena



On Monday John went on a trip to snorkel with Whale Sharks, I opted to stay
behind and do the washing because I still don’t like snorkelling in deep
water! He did get some good photos and video. The plan was to spend the
afternoon doing boat jobs but we failed. We went ashore in the late
afternoon for a BBQ at the yacht club. Somehow the wrong message got to the
boats, we took meat but should have taken a side dish to share as they had
plenty of meat. There was lots of food for everyone, though, and the bar
did a roaring trade.

Tuesday was our last day on the island, we needed to leave the mooring by
2215, 72 hours after we crossed the finish line, not because of officialdom
but rather because of the time constraints of the rally. I bravely, or
foolishly depending on your viewpoint, climbed up Jacob’s Ladder. The 699
steps each have a rise of 11 inches, about 18cm, and I found it extremely
difficult but I made it to the top then walked back down by road. John
meanwhile had been sourcing a few parts for the boat having excused himself
from the climb because his legs hurt from yesterday’s snorkelling. Once
back on board I sorted out the forward cabin ready for sea while John took
the back of the gearbox apart to replace the seal he had found below the
engine when he had repaired it on passage. The good news is that we didn’t
appear to have lost much oil.

Eventually, at 1827, I slipped the mooring lines and we motored off towards
Brazil, only 1.882 nM to go. We had set up the poles while we were on the
mooring but the wind was too weak to bother about pulling the sails out.
While I was cooking dinner the sails unrolled themselves without John
noticing! Clearly the roller furling line wasn’t made off on the winch.
How he failed to hear the sails flapping I do not know. We tightened them
up, both out to starboard (right hand side of the boat) and got a slight
lift in boat speed. At 0345 John finally switched off the engine and pulled
the portside sail across to port so we are now sailing wing and wing.

For dinner I cooked John a prawn skewer basted with sweet chili sauce, then
we had steak marinated in red wine with potatoes, green beans and
courgettes. You have probably guessed that the prawn skewer and the steaks
were meant for last night’s BBQ.

Finally, we would like to wish our niece Hester and our great nephew Harry a
very happy belated birthday. Sorry we didn’t manage to post anything
yesterday.

Joyce


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