Saturday 1st December
Current Position: N 22o 58'.137 W 24o 38".831
Current Speed : 6.8 knots
Distance to finish at Saint Lucia : 2123 nm
* * * * *
Three things slipped by Indulgence today.
The Indulgence Times :
In headline news, Jambon Hoche, the yachts mascot, was swept away in what we believe was an involuntary gybe during the middle of the night. Hoche was a pink little pig that has sailed with Aidan on his last boat Argus and more recently Indulgence. Since 2005, he has been tied onto the ships binnacle, but that was until the early hours of this morning. A memorial was held in his honour with close friends and family present. May he rest in peace and swim with the fish forever. A coronary investigation is now being held into the matter.
In other news, we managed to avoid a close collision with yacht Rafiki, a Beneteau 47.3.
Okay, it was not as dramatic as a collision by any stretch of the imagination, but it sure caused excitement on board. During our Atlantic crossing, it has been typical to see other yachts and ships pass by, but always at a distance. Usually we would see sails along the horizon, or a navigation light at night. We also have the AIS system which indicates passing traffic on our plotter. It is funny, but also comforting to think that in the vastness of this big blue ocean there are others out here too.
We knew Rafiki was within range as we had heard them on the VHF radio. One of the crew members Andy from Gosport had sailed on Indulgence during a passage from Portugal to Porto Santo and so there had been great banter at the bar and the warf between us and the crew. A running joke between Andy and John has been to track each other down and they have been known to chase each other around the bar singing " I will fiiiiiiinnnnnnnd you!". Imagine the giggles when we head the same song on our VHF this morning, followed by white sails popping up over the horizon shortly afterwards. There were our boys, and after five days of hard chasing, they managed to track us down. Amazing in this vast open space.
Like pirates encroaching their prey, Rafiki crept up, sailing constantly at 8knots with two headsails poled out, while we were averaging 7. We got within two cables of each other, waving like crazy and even managing to see faces!. Yes, other faces, believe it or not is a rarity after five days of looking at only three other people.
Finally, another Mahi Mahi fish was too fast for our lure and escaped before we could claim her for dinner. Oh well, tomorrow is another day and the days are going very fast at the moment.
--
Rafiki-passes-Indulgence-sm