Champagne Sailing at the halfway point
13 March 2012 | Pacific Ocean
Jonathan
We're trailing the fleet, but we're experiencing some lovely sailing. The Duogen is churning out more electric power than we can use, the Hydrovane has been steering the boat continuously for the last 3 days and we've been on a broad reach, which has today evolved into a beam reach. If we were a little more serious about boat speed, we'd probably be setting the parasailor up close, or running the cruising 'chute; although I think there's often a little too much wind for that. Heather and I have in fact had a bit of a role reversal over the past few days. I've been revelling in the easy sailing conditions, happy with anything above 6 knots or so of boat speed. Heather is anxious to get at least 7 knots so we don't arrive at Hiva Oa too late for the ARC festivities and to catch up with the rest of the fleet before they leave. I'm also keen to get there, but I really am enjoying some of the most relaxing sailing I've ever experienced. I've also caught up on my sleep, so I'm feeling very contented as we approach the half-way point (we should be half way by about midnight tonight). We're making about 7.5 knots of speed over ground right now, with occasional surges to 8 knots, so we have nothing to complain about. A few days ago we were smashing our 24 hour personal best records for matilda. We set an all-time record of 176 miles in 24 hours when we crossed the Caribbean Sea. A couple of days back we broke 180 miles in 24 hours, which was just amazing. With any luck we will be able to do even better once the wind shifts more to the East and we start running with a kite during the daylight hours again. Another first happened to me the night before last. I had heard about this happening to others, but was never really sure if they were pulling my leg. I can confirm that it really does happen, as a flying fish slammed into the back of my head in the wee small hours. I think it took off from the water to windward and was caught by stronger winds than anticipated, which flicked him straight over our gunwales and into the back of my head. He flipped about on the deck for a while as I tried to shepherd him back over the leeward gunwale, but he made it back to the water only a little dazed and confused. We heard that Peat Smoke had 30 flying fish land on their decks last night, and the sight in the morning was a bit like a massacre. It's easy to see how it can happen as the big squadrons of flying fish scatter randomly as the hull of our boat approaches. We have been eating well too; I cooked an omelet today with onions, cheese, garlic and oregano on rye bread which was very filling. Yesterday Heather did one of my favourites, a pesto pasta with tuna, anchovies, olives and pine nuts. It's nice to be able to enjoy the food we liked to have when we were at home in Dubai whilst at sea. Here's to a second half crossing just like the first - if we can maintain the same momentum we will be at sea for another 9 1/2 days. Time has certainly flown for us so far; it really only seems as though we've been at sea for a few days!