Today we discuss: going through “the change”; half full or half
empty?; speed partying; the great whale debate is finished;
Hi,
Hope you are well, have you got your coffee? tea? oh, go on, get a biscuit
as well—we can wait.
Here goes,
We continue to make steady, if not spectacular, progress- Izzy continues to
fly proudly at bow converting the steady trade winds (today between 8 and 15
knots per hour) into forward progress. While a big generalisation, we can
convert roughly 50 – 60 % of the wind speed into boat speed when we are
travelling with the wind directly behind us. And that is what we have been doing
for the past day or two—until, the change. It was rather a highlight of today-
we decided that we would not take the direct “great circle” route to St.Lucia,
but, instead take a slightly southern route to avoid some expected poor weather
next week. So, with all of us taking a braced position, we changed course from
263 degr to 253 degrees- the boat hardly moved. In fact, we barely had to adjust
the sails. With good luck and not too many squalls to avoid, we should be on
this same course for the next 823 nm (nautical miles, remember they are
equivalent to 1.15 real miles) to a spot where we will then turn right, again.
That means we will not change course for the next 5 – 6 days—pretty exciting!
Kind of like the driving we did across Alberta and Saskatchewan a couple years
ago- sometimes the road was a straight line as far as you could see.
Speaking of mileage, we were able to put on our glad rags, turn up the
stereo and celebrate the half way point. Depending upon your disposition, it
could be called half of the trip is gone or half is yet to come. Either way, we
broke our dry boat policy and alcohol was served—oh, ahhhh. It was Mike who
summed it up best, saying that he wasn’t sure that he really wanted to have his
beer, but, after the first sip was quoted as saying “marvelous”. While the boys
enjoyed their beer, Jane remained true to the preferences of her and her girl
friends at home(you know who you are)—sipping a bit of bubbly. Bill provided the
nibbles for the occasion and what followed was an accelerated night out: we
drank the beer, discussed politics, religion, global conflict, gun control, why
people don’t have passports, why it was great to have good friends, how every
body was our friend, it ended in a group hug with “I love you brother” all
around and then we all had a snooze and woke up with a headache... all in 30
minutes.
While that may have happened on previous occasions with perhaps one or two
more drinks involved, tonight we spent a few minutes discussing the 10 days that
have passed. We compared what surprised us the most during the trip so far, Jane
was amazed how quickly each day passes; Bill was shocked to actually catch a
fish and was also impressed by how close the whales had come to the boat, how
inquisitive they were and that we saw so many; Mike hadn’t expected such a big
variety of weather- yesterday being “brochure like” with mostly sunny skies and
warmth when compared to a day like today which was overcast and cooler (although
still over 25 degrees C we still had toasted sandwiches and soup!). As well, the
sheer distances involved in the trip are incredible particularly when you are in
a boat that travels less than 10 miles an hour!; The captain is just happy that
we still have 4 crew and that most of the things we have broken so far have been
fixable. As well, it is surprising the number of things that need to be
addressed as the boat moves along. Collectively, we were surprised how quickly
the time has gone. Lets hope this continues for the next 9 –10 days.
Christmas spirit on the high seas- we managed to include an advent calendar
with us when we left Las Palmas. It was quite interesting to see Jane very
quickly claim the 4th as the first one that she wanted to open. The rest of us
went along with it and so we now have a 4 day rotation calendar for advent
calendar opening. We did ask Jane why the fixation on the 4th and as many of our
more astute readers will have already figured out- by taking the 4th, she
ensures that she opens the one on the 24th. Having 3 other sisters, Jane had to
wait for 4 years before she could open the 24th and so was happy to quickly grab
(in her own words) this opportunity. Competitive Advent calendar opening—what
next?
A fewer other bits, from our mail call today...
One of our dear readers has asked why the fixation on squalls? Simply
because they are not very predictable and can have a devastating impact on your
sails—that is, convert a very pretty looking sail into not very attractive
shreds of fabric, with very little notice. We prefer to maintain our full suite
of sails intact and so are somewhat focused on avoiding these types of speed
bumps.
We are also happy to announce that there seems to be a consensus that the
whales we have been encountering are Minke whales— thanks to Roger and Sean for
their help.
The cutest email we have received so far was Bill’s niece and her children:
from Colin – he wanted to know if he could go sailing with Uncle Bill and then
went to the library to get a book on sailing; Matthew, asked about “ALL of the
fishes that you are seeing” and Cassidy wants to know where Uncle Bill
sleeps. We all wanted to say hi to them and thanks for following along
with us.
Culinary corner: this evenings delight was a reprise of a meal that Mike
had presented previously—the Australians Women’s Weekly Mediterranean Chicken
(as rebranded by Mike). Our fresh veg supply continues to do well, but, the
cherry tomatoes in this recipe probably needed to be used soon.
Now that the meal is finished, dishes are done, Jane is going around the
boat doing the safety check (because she was on the 15:00 to 19:00 watch), we
have prepared for the evening by putting out the search light we use at the helm
to look at the sail, put Man Over Board fobs on our life jackets, made sure the
head torches work and have filled up the kettle so it can be boiled at some
point for hot drinks. We seem to be surrounded by dark clouds and the (almost
full) moon is still hiding behind them. So it will be a bit tricky siting the
squall clouds, but, we do have radar and it is particularly useful for tracking
them. Should be a fun one.
That’s it for now, best wishes to you all, hope you have a great rest of
the day/evening,
The Crew of the Libeccio