Atlantic crossing Day 5, Tues 23/11
23 November 2021
by Ann MacNeill
We are underway and it has been busy. On Saturday a reefing line jammed as we tried to hoist sails for the start. Yikes, Tim got his tools out and fixed it, it had jumped off a roller. We had a good start mixing it up with the big boats, exciting and scary in equal measure. As expected they scooted past us. We saw another pod of whales that afternoon. Things tend to go wrong in the dark, as they did on Sat eve when we tried to hoist the cruising chute, something twisted and we had to abort our mission. We got it flying on Sunday, but overnight the wind got too strong. As we tried to drop it two snap shackles unshackled themselves (shouldn’t happen) giving us both a massive wrestle on the foredeck to get it inboard. Sail changes are a huge feature of the day. Yesterday, we dropped the cruising chute late afternoon and put up two headsails, each held out by a pole for downwind sailing overnight. The sail change took the best part of two hours. It is like macrame up there, ropes everywhere. Both of us are on the foredeck so it is an anxious time, and not the moment to fall off, for sure. Yesterday though we were joined by a very attentive small school of dolphins who definitely knew we were on the foredeck about a metre from them. One, which looked a bit covered in old injuries was a real show off, leaping out right beside us doing elaborate back flips and splashes. I had gone full dame Edna, shouting “I love you dolphins”. Just as well no gladioli around (for those with long memories). The ocean currents give a big rolling swell, so life on board can be tricky and we need to move carefully. We are fairly busy, getting weather files in the morning, and planning our sailing day and sail changes. Due to the swell cooking is tricky and takes a bit longer. For the first few days it was grey and sometimes rainy. Yesterday was sunny and lovely. Just staring at the sea, what’s not to like. For planning we have divideD the route into 7 chunks,each with a waypoint 300 miles apart. Yesterday we completed chunk 1 having covered 317 miles, so on track for us, but too slow for the ARC. Today is day 1 chunk 2. Flying fish leaping through the sunrise, silvery and amazing. Watches going well. Last night we trialled 8 to 10, 10 to 12, then 12/3 and 3/6. That worked well. If falling asleep in the cockpit then we agree to wake each other and shorten watches as required but that hasn’t happened yet. Hope u r all good. Will update post chunk 2 if servers allow it. Life on the ocean is challenging and interesting to say the least.
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