Bluewaft - Log Day 3

Bluewaft Log Day 3
Tuesday 22 November 2016
24 42’.756N 018 21’723W
The winds finally arrived and we were able to switch off the motor at about
2am. Unfortunately our joy was short-lived as this coincided with the
topping lift chaffing through…(We’re still not sure how this happened as
she wasn’t under any load. Perhaps the sharp edge of a batten? A lazy
line was also partly worn through). We are making between 7 and 8kts on 12
– 15kts of wind – so are quite happy.
We fortunately have a spare sheet of the right length and dimension. I
tried to get up the mast head to thread the replacement but only managed as
far as the top spreaders before being ‘bounced’ into submission.
(Fortunately I was wearing my helmet). We’ve decided to leave it for one
of the forecast calm days and try again, this time going up on the main
halyard. Under our current sail plan there is no problem. The sail is
taking the weight of the boom, and the lazy lines are there as a back-up.
The dilemma will arise when we want to deploy the parasail. The current
thinking is we will use the main halyard as a topping lift.
We’ve already seen a couple of big pods of Atlantic Spotted dolphins. We
also saw what looked to be a large Bronze whaler shark come in for a look.
No luck with the fishing so far – not even a nibble. Hopefully things will
pick up later – and this is not another side effect of the under –
developed trades!
There was a lovely sunset framed nicely amongst squalls drifting from the
north. We celebrated with our first G&T ‘sun downers’ on the flybridge.
Despite the lack of fresh fish, we managed to ‘slum it’ with a small BBQ of
solomillo steak and vegetables. Went down quite well with a nice bottle of
Rioja!
Hoping for more smooth seas and favourable winds!