Are we nearly there yet
10 December 2016 | Somewhere in the mid Atlantic but a bit nearer than last time
Ian Sales
Well it seems to have been a long passage, although our daily runs for the last two days of 150 and 147 mean we have a real chance of arriving on 13th in office hours, as long as the winds keep up. Currently we have 18 -23 Knots of true wind from just North of East. Yesterday I decided to change the sail plan as we could not make our course and I did not want to get pushed too far south. So gybed the headsail, this entails putting sail away , taking the pole down and then putting it up on the other side of the babystay, then letting it out again. Not my favourite occupation with the boat rockin and rolling. However once done we put away the main and just had the headsail poled out to port. No problem steering the course but the Hydrovane could not deal with the gusts. The wind veered (clockwise and more to the east) so we put out the main to starboard. Hydrovane still would not hold it as really the sail positions should have been reversed back to where we started. So put away the main and we have been sailing on poled out headsail with the autopilot and hydrovane steering together. Thats where we are now and we are averagiing 6 knots. Were I younger and keener and had extra crew we might have persevered to get it just right, but if this works and we get in OK on 13th that will do us. Its also quite bouncy which makes doing anything a challenge, many a curse has has left our lips over a cup put down for a second that dived onto the floor or threw its contents away. I use the gimballed cooker now for placing items that we need to top up, ie my tea. Weather is sunnier now and we have only had a couple of real showers, now the moon is waxing we can see for most of the night if there are any squalls coming. Other boats ahead have had plenty but so far we have escaped (Hostage to fortune). Readers have asked about clothing etc, we always wear deck shoes as our decks are covered in things waiting to snare your feet, in fact I scratched my bad leg yesterday on seizing wire on the main sheet shackle while crawling around, seems ok today. Temp is about 32C so no need for clothes but the life jackets get itchy and scratchy without a Top, so its shorts and T shirts. We had the first Fray Bentos pie with tinned veg and mashed potato(Lidls powder) so it will be nice to get some fresh food on arrival. The fruit has held out well with oranges still good and all the apples now gone but none went off. Our nearest sailmail station is Trinidad but I have all sorts of problems connecting with them, its easier to connect to Nova Scotia the next nearest station, so most stuff now goes over the satphone, which works really well. Only other mechanical issue is the fridge, its been playing up since Turkey, it works OK but I think the Thermostat needs replacing, we have a spare but perhaps some more bits will have to come out with visitors. I shall call the UK agents for advice once in port. So we press on, saw one yacht last night way off to port and one ship on the AIS about 20 miles away heading NW .It was G's birthday yesterday and my excuse for no presents or cards was that I thought we would be in by now, didnt cut much ice though, another day in the much visited doghouse.