Day Five and time to reconnect with the world and
everyone whom we hope has been lamenting our lack of Taistealai blogs. For those of you who don’t know about
sailing, try to imagine our world for the first few days of the voyage; the boat
is rolling and bumping around like a demented roller-coaster, nothing stays
where you put it down, and striping our foulies off or on becomes a crazy
one-legged dance, slip sliding around whilst holding onto the boat. Never has
the phrase “one hand for you and one for the boat” seemed so relevant. And the
cause of all this? Day one of the ARC and full-on ocean sailing as we charged
down the coast of Gran Canaria before heading west to cut through the infamous
wind acceleration zones off the Canary Islands. We knew what to expect – Chris,
our illustrious skipper explained all about them at the well attended pre-start
weather briefings – but the reality was still a surprise . At over 4,000m and
2,000m high the islands and Tenerife and Gran Canaria are giant stones in the
tradewind airstream, causing acceleration and turbulence in their wake. That
said, we were well prepared; suited and booted and with reefs in our mainsail
and jib. The NE 20 knot winds of the start day were pushed up to a gusting 30+
knots in the acceleration zone, giving a wild ride for the first day and night.
Since then, it has taken a few days for the able crew of
Taistealai – Chris, Helen, Will and Jem, to acclimatise to life on board. The
winds stayed up at 25 knots and with them the sea state, making for exhilarating
sailing; polled out jib and mainsail, first or second reefs in, as we scudded
down 3m waves that had a short sharp frequency, which gave us a bumpy if fast
ride. And yet despite the full force of the winds and waves, it was still
pleasingly warm. Foulies obligatory to fend off the occasional cross swell that
sent a plume of spray across the cockpit and down the necks of the unwary, but
no need for the layers of fleeces one would wear in similar conditions at home.
A hot meal is always good for crew morale, and Helen’s
epic preparations in provisioning for the voyage made for a very happy crew
despite the wild ride. Pre-cooked stews and pastas appeared in succession out of
the freezer so that none of us had to endure too long in the galley at meal
times. Helen’s only disappointment with the preparations so far was a poor
quality batch of oranges and lemons, soon sacrificed to Neptune as mould took
them over on day two.
Always one to rise to a sailing challenge, Chris, along
with Will, soon took to playing with our sail inventory in a laudable effort to
make steering and reefing easier in the testing conditions. A nifty trick with
our staysail, flown to leeward opposite our polled out jib, helped make downwind
reefing easier when needed – which was quite often in the frequent squalls we
encountered in day two and three. Trade wind rain squalls, wind filled bundles
of rain, have been passing us by with a frequency more often found in the latter
part of the ARC passage. If caught by surprise the swift increase in wind
strength can rip sails and break gear. Luckily, they have been easy to spot on
the moon-filled nights, and when the visibility has been poor, they also show up
well on our Raymarine radar, giving time to reef down.
Day four saw the beginnings of what we hope are
sustained tradewinds – NE 10 to 15 knots with a sky full of puffy white clouds
now less filled by rain squalls, a gentle rolling sea state and best of all,
sunshine! We are keeping our foulies to hand for night watches when squalls are
more common, but out have come the wide brimmed sun hats, shorts and sunscreen.
Our polled-out white sails have been swapped for the first of our wide selection
of spinnakers – big balloon shaped coloured sails optimised for downwind sailing.
Yesterday we popped-up our heavy kite, our sunshine yellow all-weather stalwart
of a sail. Less rolling, more boat speed and a happy crew. Taistealai is
revelling in the conditions now, pulled along handsomely by our yellow prince of
a sail, leaving smiles across the faces of all her crew as we scoot down the
waves. We may only be drinking a cup of tea, but this is still champagne sailing!
And as a post script after all the sailing stuff in this
blog, our crew morale was lifted further yesterday by visits from playful
dolphins. First a few curious night time visitors, then in daylight a pod of 10,
complete with high leaps and bow riding. Next, as if this was not enough, Helen
spotted a finned whale, its tell-tail breathing spouts clearly visible a hundred
and fifty meters off our starboard side. Finally, just to confirm that we are
definitely in tropical waters, shoals of flying fish bursting from the Atlantic
swell greeted 8am watch change today.
So, for now as the afternoon sun starts to lower toward
the horizon, we will sign off, all safe and well aboard Taistealai.
Chris, Helen, Will and Jem (and the Penguin).
27/11/2015 at 23 50N 31 14W and 1779 miles to run to
Saint Lucia.