Wednesday 5th December – Paula Rosa
In bed by 9pm so I’m bright and breezy getting up for the dreaded 3 am watch. Will hopefully dream of stars and such things but for some reason wake at 01.10 in a panic I’ve missed my watch, maybe days at sea are having their effect!
3 am and its very dark, very few stars just dark clouds scudding overhead bringing bursts of wind that give us an average speed of 12knots and in a good direction.
Paula Rosa sings…. well hums, it is such a lovely noise, of course D thinks it is the rudders vibrating when the boat goes fast!! I think Paula Rosa just loves the ocean and spinning along so effortlessly!
Back in bed by 6am and looking forward to a couple of hours sleep before my day actually begins. Thud, thud, thud on the foredeck above, for some so nimble they really sound like a herd of elephants. More foredeck bad behaviour - for some reason both asymmetric sheets had become detached from the sail. This left the entire sail flogging with nothing to control it with! Again the bows team turned to the snuffer! However, on a previous hoist the snuffer had become twisted and it was feared tearing the spinnaker if it was pulled too hard, but with no other option it had to be tried. Fortunately, the wind had dropped and the billowing asymmetric was taken under control and the sheets reattached - this time securely tied on with a lashing and a good helping of duct tape!
Amazingly once I decided there were enough people to manage the potential crisis unfolding, I drift back into a deep sleep. Whilst slumbering all is sorted and order is once more restored.
Nick and David saw another whale gracefully pass on the starboard side just one glimpse of his gleaming back and fin, this time in the opposite direction, sadly not interested enough in us to reappear, just going along on his own journey, they thought it looked similar to the whales we saw previously. It is wonderful to know they are there with all the other creatures that we don’t see.
There have been some birds along our voyage, amongst them three beautiful white ones with perfectly pointed long tails, orange beaks and perhaps black around the eye, not sure what they are. They circled us for a few hours, so graceful and calling out to each other.
After our good winds, today they dropped down significantly and for the first time we were going along at 6 or 7 knots, don’t tell anyone else but it was rather nice, just peaceful with the sea and waves so much calmer than the last 9 or 10 days. Unfortunately the wind got even lighter so the asymmetric came down (fortunately more gracefully than on some occasion’s) we sailed with the jib and the main for a couple of hours in the wrong direction. The boys were twitching for the wind to pick up and fortunately once the cloud cover cleared the breeze returned and the asymmetric went up once again, we have really had perfect wind strengths up until now, although not always in the right direction and when and if to jibe remains the hot topic!
As daylight draws to an end, it looks like the sun might just go down on the horizon without cloud, somehow we watch it every evening and in the last few moments before it disappears clouds appear almost from nowhere. Tonight we have a special treat; it goes down as usual nestled in the cloud but then breaks free at the bottom and disappears into the sea but with an extra magical performance, the green glow!
Watch tonight is 11pm so I’ll read for a bit then try and sleep a little…I think the stars tonight will be good
Love to all
Dee x