Hope to be arriving tomorrow (Sunday) during day light. We are on a direct
course with 1 reef sailing in quite strong winds with big seas. We have
had a few visits from dolphins as we are becoming closer to land. The boat is
quite jerky with lots of movement and just had a morning coffee disaster with
the pot falling over and coffee grounds everywhere. Mostly cleared up and the
rest can wait until we arrive.
We are dependent on our Watt and Sea hydrogenerator for most of our power
and it has been working really well. You can tell the speed of the boat by the
sound and tone of its whirring as it spins round charging the batteries.
Yesterday morning it was making a different sound. It is almost impossible to
lift it out of the water, or put it back in, when we are sailing at any speed so
we turned the boat round and managed to heave to which was not easy with the big
waves. Dugald lifted the Watt and Sea out and it all looked fine. When back
sailing it was making it’s usual happy whirring sound. There must have been
seaweed which was dislodged with our turn.
Squall Alley! Yesterday Andrew spotted a heavy rain shower heading for us
and then suddenly we seemed to be surrounded by squalls. The radar was showing
at least 4 large squalls one of which was making steady progress towards us. The
chart plotter was bleeping “dangerous vessel”.
Feeling quite anxious I persuaded everyone it would be good to put in a
couple of reefs, which we did. However we managed to miss all the squalls and
just had a tiny bit of light rain. The weather settled and the rest of the night
was clear with moonlight for the first half.
With less then 200 miles to go tonight should be our last night watches.
All is well on board and we are enjoying exciting sailing, but hopefully for me
not too exciting, especially for my last watch. Will be a bit sad to stop the
journey and have enjoyed it more than I expected.
Better get the Fizz in the fridge and be reporting from dry land next
time.
Val