Day 19: The wind is sixteen going on seventeen
Let’s start at the very beginning. We are still moving.
Yesterday when our winds were very light Ewen inspirationally and bravely said
that when the wind was a consistent 15 knots he would sing us a song from the
Sound of Music. Today we have eagerly watched the wind speed creep slowly
up and around tea time the elusive threshold of 15 knots was reached and
exceeded. As the wind speed hovered between 16 and 17 knots he broke into
song;
‘The wind is sixteen going on seventeen
Quite a steady breeze
Then it drops by over ten knots
This wind is a great big tease’
We did laugh! This song will never quite be the same again and will always
transport us back to a sunny afternoon in the Atlantic ocean.
We have had a steady sail today. Dave has done various calculations
and we need to average 5 knots per hour to reach Saint Lucia before the ARC
finish line closes. So far we are on track. We have sailed all day with
our cruising chute and changed our sail plan at sundown when the winds
increased. We are now sailing with our genoa which we have poled out with
our spinnaker pole. We have balanced this with the stay sail to minimise the
rolling. We have no main sail up to protect the rigging and we are flying
along.
We were joined, albeit briefly, by a pod of dolphins late afternoon.
We think they may have called by to check our Ewens singing. There has
been no guitar or saxophone today – the boat has just been a bit too
rolly. Everything is rattling in the cupboards, the boat is creaking and
food is flying off the table as we lollop continuously from side to side.
This relentless movement is hard on the boat and on its equipment.
Along with the water maker, lee cloths and Otto Van Helm I would like to pay
tribute to our generator. It is on for a couple of times a day and keeps
our batteries topped up. It has powered our fridges, freezer, lights, winches,
water maker etc and not failed us once. So far we have used half of one
tank of diesel which we feel is pretty impressive. So thank you to our
generator. These are a few of our favourite
things.