Time Bandit

It’s back to the Caribbean leaving a chilly USA east coast for the winter months in the sun.

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What day is it?

27 November 2014
After a 24-36 hours of grey and squalls delighted to say we are back to sunny Trade Wind sailing.

We saw off the last of the squalls about 10am this morning after Eric got totally soaked. In the 60 minutes of flat calm following the front we dropped the main and repaired yet another broken slider.

I also spent some time on the pole track getting that operational so we're now back to full strength, bombing along in 20 knots at 7-8 knots.

We've also hit something of a "wall" with tiredness setting in for the first time. Its been hard to get quality sleep with the rolling and crashing so I thought I'd be smart and looked up the relaxation tracks on my iPod, took to my bed and..... lying six inches from the ocean rushing past my ears it was a bit of a blow to hear the "relaxing" sounds were......rushing water. Aaaarrrgghhh.

The narrator, "Imagine yourself as a drop of rainwater"....how about "Imagine yourself in a washing machine with a frightened cat" is more accurate.

Our sports psychologist daughter gave us some unpaid, professional advice regarding our fairly pathetic 33rd position so far...."Get the finger out" she wrote. Perhaps if we'd paid we'd have got a more subtle form of encouragement but we got the message, have extracted the digit and will hopefully make up some ground.

One aspect of this ocean passaging is how fitness impacts on your enjoyment. During the summer, after finding myself in a lather, lying in the cockpit completely knackered after winching in the genoa for the umpteenth time as we tacked up the coast of Majorca I decided to start doing some pre-ARC training. Consequently, since July, much to the amusement of many, I've been doing a daily routine and I can tell you I'm glad I did.

Just standing and moving around the boat is an effort and how some folks manage hauling sails up and down, taking reefs in and out, trimming sails, gybing and all the other physical efforts of running the boat is beyond me.

For example, Eric just pulled himself vertical from his bunk saying "Great this ocean racing....I can't even stand up". Poor boy has been a bit poorly but on the mend and the old jokes are surfacing again.

Not entirely sure that's a good thing.
Comments
Vessel Name: Time Bandit
Vessel Make/Model: Outremer 51
Hailing Port: Largs, Scotland
Crew: Anne and Stuart Letton
About: ex dinghy and keelboat racers now tooled up with a super sleek cat and still cruising around aimlessly, destination Nirvana...
Extra: Next up....the Caribbean. We've left South Africa in our wake and now off to Namibia, St Helena, Brazil, Suriname and into the Caribbean. Well, that' the vague plan. We'll see what happens.
Home Page: http://www.sailblogs.com/member/timebandit/profile
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Time Bandit's Photos - Main
8 Photos
Created 7 June 2024
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Created 26 May 2022
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Created 2 April 2021
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Created 1 April 2021
A few pics of Maldives so far.....
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Created 29 March 2021
15 Photos
Created 22 September 2020
Our escape the the wild mountain thyme
21 Photos
Created 23 June 2020
21 Photos
Created 2 October 2019
Selayar
18 Photos
Created 6 September 2019
16 Photos
Created 1 September 2019
Some pics from Debut and the Kei Islands
24 Photos
Created 30 July 2019
From the north of Australia to Debut Indonesia
8 Photos
Created 23 July 2019
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Created 19 October 2018
1 Photo
Created 20 October 2017
7 Photos
Created 23 June 2017
An interesting perspective on evolution in the Galapagos.
23 Photos
Created 7 March 2016
18 Photos
Created 30 September 2014
Mediterranean Spain to the Arctic Circle
67 Photos
Created 12 August 2013
Scraping and sanding hull back to gel coat for epoxy and Coppercoat treatments.
6 Photos
Created 3 February 2013