Risque Business - The Dark Watch

12:37.28N 53:3.51W

0015 GMT, Friday 1st Dec 2023

Well I got that well and truly wrong! Sat in a bar in Mindelo a couple of weeks ago, the crew all gave our best estimates on our arrival date and time in Port Louis, Grenada. OK, we did have to turn back to repair our mainsail and in effect took a 32 hour hit, but even so, my very bullish estimate was to arrive by 1500 local time on 30th Nov. The rest of the crew went for various times on the 1st Dec, apart from Ed, who decided that the wine, beer and cider cellars we were carrying would add a further 2 days to our Atlantic crossing time and he went for 3rd Dec! He’s going to be the closest, but I think the light winds will probably have something to do with it, rather than the alcohol on board! Current thinking is arrival sometime Monday 4th Dec?? Just hope the wind picks up a little and we can beat that.

I’ve called this the dark watch, as that is exactly what it is. Previously I’ve talked about the bright moonlight illuminating our way, but at midnight tonight, the moon has not risen, so looking up to the heavens, we can see the stars and the galaxies all around. However it won’t be long before the moon is with us and its light will drown out the stars. Even now it is starting to lighten in the east, and the moon will say hello.

We also have had our 1st squalls and rain of the voyage these last 24 hours, so we have our radar on and currently I’m tracking one squall on our port quarter. I can only describe these as like inviting a Tasmanian Devil for afternoon tea. Yep chaos! OK, the analogy doesn’t quite work, as you’d probably never invite a TD to tea and at least we do have an idea what we are in for with a squall when they decide to dump on us! Big wind shifts, some very strong winds and heavy rain. A mad dash to shorten sail, close all the hatches and sling all the cockpit cushions below. As we are sailing RB conservatively, we have taken down our big gennaker during the night, as we don’t want any damage to our only remaining light wind sail. During the night it’s quite a complex task requiring 3 crew on the foredeck, all clipped on with their harnesses to get the big sail furled and safely in its bag. So we tend to avoid that if we can by dropping the sail early and continue under the big genoa. We do lose a bit of speed sadly, but that is preferable to not being able to drop the sail quickly enough and causing damage to it.

These last 2 days have seen the sextant being used to take noon sites. Nick took yesterdays readings and after working through the text books, he got us to a very credible 10 miles from our actual position. Rich had a go today and only managed a 60 mile error (more homework needed Mr H - although his excuse was that some clouds blocked his view right at the suns zenith). It’s Ed’s turn tomorrow, so we’ll see how he gets on. All quite amazing when the Latitude and Longitude figures fall out of the mathematics. However, Rich has completed his PADI Open Water Dive Theory course and scored 94% in his final exam. Now just got to get to Grenada with time to do the practical training to get his certificate.

Ed and Rich have also introduced Buraco to David, who has picked up the card game really well. A close game with Rich yesterday, he got unlucky with Ed today after leading him for much of the game and then a triple game, with David and Ed getting all the bloody luck and beating Rich - honest, I’m not bitter about that posetto you picked up Ed! Good fun.

Tonight we had another film night with Master & Commander on the big screen. A cracking film, but the crew are all a bit worried that Nick might have picked up some naval discipline tips regarding being the captain of a 17th C warship! The cat-o-nine-tails is not permitted in this day and age Nick!

So not so much the ‘dark watch’ anymore as the moon is here and the stars have seemingly all been vaporised. That big black squall I mentioned earlier, which I was tracking on the radar, has just passed our stern and although the wind did pick up to 18-20kts and we got a few spots of rain, which sent me scurrying around in the cabin shut the hatches and windows, all is back to normal again - and hopefully it stays like that for the last 30 minutes of my now ‘not-so dark watch’!