Today we discuss: a little ahead of ourselves; whale of a time opus 3;
Izzy’s back; the Lanai is open; Now this is what the brochure
promised!
Greetings from the not only good, but, great ship Libeccio. Following a
rather wet and windy start to last evening, we find ourselves under sail,
heading due east with the sun about to set over the horizon typing the log. All
that is missing is that rather cheeky and slightly pretentious bottle of (fill
in the blank with your favorite plonk) and all would be complete. Some would
argue that the log should not be shared with the sunset, but, dear readers—you
are worth it!
When we last left you we were still engaged in the dodge squall game and
feeling, frankly, pretty full of ourselves— the score was Libeccio: a
lot—squalls: nil.. we were pretty convinced we had it sussed when all of a
sudden it was noted that the wind was picking up- not itself a bad thing
necessarily, then rain drops were being felt at the helm—pretty hard to
ignore and then the heavens opened up—score one for the squalls. We were rather
lucky in that it was a beginner squall, some may even say it was a rain cloud,
but, we didn’t want to taunt it just because we had lost. The winds did not pick
up very high (25 knots or so) but the boat did get a rather complete bath and
its occupants sent scurrying to close all manner of hatches and doors. We are
fortunate to have the helm enclosure so we largely stayed dry.
It seemed to be our night for losing and in the second round of battle that
evening- we lost the wind. Not particularly a bright thing to do if you are a
sail boat in a sailing rally, but, we lost the majority of the wind so that we
were down to around 5 knots of wind which barely makes Libeccio move 1 – 2
knots. This leaves us vulnerable to a little more rocking by the waves than we
would prefer and as importantly, unable to effectively avoid any squalls that
may be hunting us down. Determined not to be bested by mother nature, we kept
our Wing-on-Wing sail plan- apologies if this is repetitive but under this plan
you have the main sail out on one side of the boat and the genny on the other,
both suitably held in place by a boom preventer for the main sail and a barber
hauler for the genny. With very little wind and no speed in the water, it made
for a rather rolly night of (not so much) sleep. This lasted until 04:00 when
the capt came on for his duty- through vast years of experience and innate
ability to find the hidden pockets of wind -- he got lucky and the wind
picked up enough to change the sail plan and start hunting down these baby
squalls. The reason for this is that clouds like these have winds around them-
preferably on the side, not so preferably in front and because they leave a dead
zone at the back- definitely not the back. Whether this was the real reason or
not, we enjoyed good wind for the next 90 mins until the wind stopped as quickly
as it had started. It has to be said that this one of the things about this trip
so far that has confounded us- here we are a 1000 or more miles from any form of
land that could cause such a big change in such a small distance—so why does it
happen?
(By the way, the sunset is beautiful, red sky back drop to at night and all
of the scattered clouds—so red sky at night, sailors delight. Unless you are
from Aus and then it is Red Sky at night, Shepherd’s delight. Don’t say you
never learn anything here.)
When the wind died, you would think t hat the captain would once again dig
deep into his bag of nautical experience to find a way to overcome the
trials by nature—and indeed he did—he gave up and started the engine! This was
the first time we had used the engine since the first day of the rally, but, the
forecast was for weak winds in this sector and we had the choice of rolling
around for another few hours or getting out of dodge and finding some wind..
which we did.
This brings us to our slightly embarrassing moment- after announcing
the party and sending out the invites, ordering the food from the caterer,
booking the DJ and stocking the bar- -we have had to put our “half way there”
party clothes back in the closet because of the slow progress yesterday. We
will, however, be hoping to celebrate tomorrow.. you are still welcome to
attend.
“I forgot to mention that during last night’s passage, Mike had a close
encounter of the baline kind—apparently, around 3:00 am, a whale surface about
20 meters from the boat and cleared his blow hole so he could breath. AS you may
know this is quite a loud event so consider how quiet it is at night and despite
the moon getting ever larger, it was pitch black because it was behind
clouds there is very little you can see when looking out onto the sea. Then out
of no where you get this very loud noise- -kinda like someone sneaking up on you
when you are watching a horror movie and yelling “boo!”. It took an hour or two
before Mike could get his pulse back down to normal.
We didn’t mention that yesterday we were determined to get Izzy back into
service- just the thing she needed after the injury suffered the day before. It
must have been a sign that it was not a good day to fly her because after taking
down the main, its preventer, the genny and its barber hauler, rerunning the
guys and control lines for Izzy, the wind gods turned the wind dial up to
between 20 and 25 kn which is much too strong to launch her. So back to the
wing-on-wing that I mentioned earlier. This morning, we had perfect conditions
for Izzy and happily launched her mid morning (we don’t do anything very early
lest we disturb the slumber of our ship mates who were on the late watches). And
she has been taking us directly on our route all. Welcome back Izzy! We are
going to continue to fly her through the night (we never learn do we?) but it
would seem our biggest challenge is not enough wind- she stops having fun around
5- 6 knots and wants to be put away. So far so good, but, with the 3/4 full moon
out tonight we should be able monitor her and put her away should it be
necessary.
With the big improvement in the weather, the flattening of the seas and the
fact we are running down wind, we have opened the lanai. For those of you not so
familiar with the Leopard 44 ....
oops, just got called the stern of the boat to look at the moon- scattered
cloud, reflection on the water—a bit of a wow moment.
... back to our regular drivel.. anyways, out boat has a seating area in
the front (if you are really bored, google a picture of the Leopard 44) – we
love it as it gives another seating area which helps if you are at anchor as it
faces the wind so is cooler on hot nights, and also when you are docked in a
marina, it give you privacy. It also gives you sweeping views of the ocean as
you sail, provided it is warm enough and you are not getting inundated with
spray. Tonight we have officially opened the lanai and enjoyed both happy hour
and dinner. I am also sitting there typing the blog.
For the past 8 days we have been moaning to ourselves, that this is not
what the brochure had promised. We had signed up based upon the the pictures of
happy, smiley faces with serene waters and blazing sun in the background. Ours
so far has been more on the cool, wet and rocky nature. Today, however, we know
where the brochure pics were taken. We have enjoyed a beautiful day of sailing,
colourful sunset and an amazing moon. Sign me up!
Tonight’s culinary corner: dinner featured the fish that Bill had
caught yesterday, couscous with dried apple, broccoli and carrots. Very tasty
and very good for us as well.
One last parting thought, we have not seen another boat for just over 4
days- not by sight, AIS or radar- nor any contact by VHF. We are, however, very
,much enjoying your emails, however long or short and mail call in the morning
is a highlight for us.
We wish you the best and hope you are well,
The crew of Libeccio