Day 9 – Monday 29 November 2021
It was destined to be a day of big seas and strong winds. The squalls were intermittent with Jamie appearing to be the catalyst for their arrival. Calash was being turned on the waves making sleeping near on impossible, so come dawn we were all a bit knackered. Alan was still suffering a bit, so spent much of the day recuperating. The rest of us tried to catch a snooze, but in the sea state this was proving difficult. The most comfortable place was in the cockpit in the sun. The sailing itself was quite pleasant, rolling off the big waves, but down below we were bouncing off the walls (physically and metaphorically).
24 hour progress – 160 nm – cumulative 1166 nm
Callum and I decided to get ahead with some food preparation and had a veg chopping-fest to produce the basis for stew varieties for the next 3 days – sausage stew tonight; chickpea for Jamie – living the culinary dream.
We came across a few yachts today, all following slightly different strategies. There was a bit of sail tinkering today, but in the end we decided to keep the same course and see how we got on overnight. One thing for sure though was that everyone seemed to be going with minimal sail area to make the ride as comfortable as possible.
There was also a slight variation on a theme for the night watch – the staggered approach, so that we always had two on deck. I was supporting cast for Alan’s lead role, handing the baton to Callum around 2300 hrs, except it proved impossible to wake him despite slapping him round the face with a wet fish – I guess he was pretty knackered too! In true nautical style I abandoned my post and left the skipper in charge of the bridge. It was off for my well-deserved, and some may say much needed, beauty sleep.