Sabine - daily log update for ARC boat Sabine (118) 30 Nov 2022

Hello interweb friends, Captain Stape on sail boat Sabine right here (///lemming.beware.swing)
To reef or not to reef, that is the question. The answer, in these seas, with this wind and these swells (all over the place!) is, of course to reef. Or rather, remain reefed in from the night before.
Sabine has entered another time zone (Cayenne, French Guiana), so it’s another long day as we set the clocks back 1 hr. This means Kia has an extra hour today to continue to comment on the broken microwave, and reminisce on all the food that we now can’t heat up. He’s laughing on the outside, but the crew all know he’s secretly crying on the inside.
There’s a scene of minor carnage around the helm as several flying fish and deposits of scales are lying motionless. A fish eye is found popped out on the side, with the presumed owner of the eye lying dead near the port sugar scoop. Whilst a fish eye may be a delicacy in some countries, this one is returned to its owner as both are cast back into the sea.
The seas are confused, (I’ve always thought that an odd phrase. Do the seas think ‘I’m big, I’m wet, I’m blue, I’m wavy. What am I?’) and with winds reaching up to 30kts, and Sabine surfing down them at up to 15kts, it’s decided to lower a propulsion leg to help stabilise the ride, and also generate some more electrickery for Otto.
We spot another boat on AIS, and call them up on the radio. The boat is another ARC boat: Pelagria. It seems in these conditions ‘misery loves company’ and we chat for a while. We decide to invite them to dinner, we’ll supply the pizza and they can bring the beer. Seems like a good idea so a date is set!
(In case any of my interweb friends are wondering, this won’t actually happen. Well, not until St. Lucia).
Kia made some dough and then later deep fried them into doughnuts. And then, with the left over dough, rolled some frankfurters into the dough and then deep fired them. Kia ate one and tried to assure the crew that it’s yummy… The crew seem unconvinced.
We made 11% on the propulsion battery from just having the motors dropped into the water - that seems pretty impressive! With a slightly calmer ride to boot. But as the day draws to a close Jenny is started for 30mins so that Otto can continue his power hungry job overnight.
Apologies for this being a shorter log for today, my interweb friends, but it seems the crew have spent the majority of the day trying to stay balanced upright rather than provide me with interesting things to write about!
This is Capt. Stape signing off with 1257nm to go. Ciao ciao squawk!