Day 11 -- Enjoying the trades
30 November 2010 | Off the African Coast
Peter
Today started easily enough as we sailed west under a crescent moon with the spinnaker. All was tranquil until the sun rose. Then the wind piped up to 18-20k...and the sleigh ride was on!! With a very large swell from both the northwest and east, the boat was getting jostled around quite a bit. And when you have 25,000 lb. running down the face of waves at 8 and 9k, things get, well, technical!! Driving took full concentration. It was fun,; bit it was also a bit scary.
Making breakfast late in the morning proved to be quite the task as I repeatedly had to "come up for air" to keep from feeling really seasick. But everyone took their turns trimming the kite and steering and we were able to put on 167 nm noon-to-noon, with 160 of those good towards St. Lucia!! (The other 7 were spent taking short digs to the south in search of more pressure.)
The afternoon highlight -- a shower -- was delayed as Will and Andy reported the water pump as being broken. This would be a rather important item since it would leave the 60 gal. still in the two water tanks as useless and unavailable. I was able to fix the pump, fortunately. But all I did was tear it apart and put it back together without finding anything wrong. So that is a bit bothersome and I will keep a close eye on that. At least I got my shower in -- a salt water shower finished with a fresh water rinse on the swim step!
We continue to romp along and this whole 'sailing west' thing is starting to get fun! (I am sooo sick of south!!) We are hoping our position in the class and fleet will improve, though with motoring thrown in as a wild card there is no real certainty as to the actual standing.