We have now entered the trade winds which are blowing
moderately strongly straight up our stern. Having suffered from too little wind
in the last week we have all been wishing for more wind and even offered
incantations to Neptune as none of us can remember who is the god of wind and we
hope that Neptune and he are on good enough terms to pass on the message.
If anything we now have a little too much wind but no one is complaining given
that we are on a heading direct to St Lucia and making an average of at least 8
knots with wave surfing to 11.4 knots. There is a big swell running behind us so
all in all it has been a boisterous ride for the last 24 hours but the sun is
shining and we are finally heading west at a good speed, hence no
complaints.
Our foredeck looks like flying fish Armageddon. At least
five are visible from the cockpit and are slowly decomposing in the sun as it is
not an essential task to go forward and lob them into the sea in the current sea
state. Our vegetarian Sail Tweaker is keen to institute a 'rapid response team'
in order to resuscitate and return to the sea any fish that has the misfortune
to land on our decks. Currently she is the only volunteer!
We have experienced our first Atlantic squall. Or at
least the Chief Cook has. Surfacing for her 8 am watch she was greeted by the
Skipper with 'glad you are here, a squall is coming' after which he disappeared
to his bunk. Actually that is a bit unfair as we did discuss squall strategy
before he went below. Monitoring the squalls on radar is so cool. The radar sees
the rain and allows us to see the squall path. The first squall passed to the
north of us and the third slipped by to the south. The second squall hit us fair
and square. The wind picked up on the leading edge without any major change in
direction and then the heavens opened. Sail Tweaker briefly popped her head out
of the companionway to video interview her mother being soaked. She later
commented that her mother looked 'disturbingly happy' under the
circumstances. In fact Chief Cook was just pleased to have got the first squall
under her belt without any problems.
Having not solved the butter conundrum we are now
pondering Flying Fish.
Does it hurt when they crash land back into the
sea?
Do they fly for fun or only when escaping from
predators?
Do they see Maalu IV as a friend or foe given that her
name means Fish in Sinhalese?
We want funding to establish the number of flying fish
in two sea areas of one km square. One area will contain Maalu IV and the other
will be vessel free in order to answer the latter question.
Time to go back to duty. We would like to gybe
to head a little further south however the sea state is a little too rough to
dispatch the skipper to the foredeck to take the pole off our jib and the
preventer off the boom before we gybe and then set it all up again on the
starboard tack. For land lubbers: our main and foresail are held out with a
variety of ropes and poles to maximise their effectiveness as sails. All of
these need to be removed so that we can turn the stern of the boat through the
wind and then set the sails on the opposite side of the boat with the same
arrangement of poles and knitting. Further incantations are welcome in order to
settle the sea state.