Blog Editor If you have something like this from me yesterday, ignore this
message. My Draft folder showed ‘no content’ for the message – Tom
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200nm out to sea at ~21.00hrs with the 1st shift on duty and the
three others starting to get some rest, Evan yells “All Hands on Deck!!!” That
expression is characteristically associated with: Crew overboard, hole in the
hull, derigging, piracy, etc.; something dramatic! What was happening? We heard
nothing... It turns out that unnoted by radar, we sailed within a meter or two
of a buoy of some sort with a dim green light. Why green, and why 200nm west of
Cape Verde? Suspicion is that it was a channel marker that made its escape from
its chain, and is touring the North Atlantic.
As we were sailing downwind at ~6-knots with a dual headsail
configuration, the boat would not have been easy to quickly come about, and it
was disturbingly impressive the separation distance that a few seconds allow.
Message: STAY ON THE BOAT!
Today’s malfunction is the SSB. I can hear clearly, but it will not
“tune’ for transmission. Ah well, only 50% of the ARC+ yachts have/use SSB, and
we have SAT Phone + 3 VHF Radios. Another Antigua or St. Lucia issue. In Las
Palmas we had the tuner serviced and the coax cable to the SSB backstay antenna
replaced. Peter of S/V Fleet II has agreed to assume my Net Controller
segments.
Tom Hughes