300 miles to go
Fri Dec 01 2023
300 miles to go
As Officer Muff (see below) produced the evening drinks to be shared amongst the crew in the cockpit the Captain announced that the Good Ship Distraction has 300nm to run before we turn NE towards the charming Grenadian port of St George’s. That short run of 5 or 6 miles should then bring to an end our first major ocean crossing.
300 miles is a very convenient number aboard this boat as it is easily divisible by 150, the approximate number of miles we might hope to do between noon on one day and noon on the next. Therefore, subject to a safe and uneventful passage from here we should be throwing our lines to the helpful shore crew at Port Louis marina on Saturday night.
However, the crew have requested that before going into any marina we nudge up close to the shore, heave over the Anchor, and the entire company launch themselves into the sea. Fortunately Frank, who, it turns out is a diligent Google surfer, managed to produce an article about shark attacks off of Grenada. A brief announcement to the crew of his helpful findings did nothing to dampen the spirits of the others who simply poo-poo’d it and seem hell bent on diving into the water at whatever cost. (I’ll arrange a consultation with our resident analyst (Doc Vic PhD) at some point to establish whether their behaviour is one elation or frustration)
We have had a remarkably comfortable journey so far on this passage ( ha ha, apart from tonight! For no obvious reason we are rolling from one beam end to the other with numerous pots pans and crockery sliding around n their cupboards and making things quite challenging) The winds, at times, have been light and if it weren’t for our spinnaker (RIP) at the early part of the leg, I’m sure we’d be out here a day or so longer. But, all in all our original estimate of 14 days will, if all goes well, turn out to be 15 and a bit.
Provisioning has worked out exceptionally well and Emm’s pre printed menus have been used daily. The meals have been spectacular and full of colour, flavour and variety. To the standard that if you were served any one of them in a reasonably priced restaurant you’d come away feeling quite pleased with yourself. I haven’t yet summoned the courage to enquire why we hadn’t seen any of these on our menus at home, but in light of the confined space and proliferation of sharp knives in the galley I might let that one drift by. Fresh goodies have more or less gone allowing creative menus to be constructed ‘on the hoof’, as it were, with whatever remains are found lying around. Todays ham and jam sandwich with a side dish of apple and pickled gherkin was inspired.
Tomorrow, permissions have been sought, and subsequently granted, to allow a classic Grenadian dish to be prepared for our last full day at sea. I’ve called it Chika-Chika roasty, which to the sharp eyed amongst you might sound a lot like roast chicken, which indeed it is. Chicken, roast potatoes, vegetables and gravy. No passage, of any length would be complete without it. Rest assured that any gravy produced will be made to a constitution that will safely keep the contents firmly on the plate.
Navigating this two thousand two hundred mile passage has had its ups and downs. We are not entirely sure our friends at PredictWind sent us off in the right direction at the start of this leg. Had we held our bearing after leaving Mindelo we probably would have ended up in Cape Town. That’s altogether the wrong continent let alone wrong direction. A sharp 90 degree turn helped save face and together with our old friend the spinnaker we made great ground to the West. Having clawed back from bottom quartile to top quartile on the leaderboard PredictWind then produced an array of courses to help find the best route to Grenada. Some involved diving to the south, some 3 degrees of latitude further south than our target. Another suggested we career off to the North and swing around the back of Barbados before once again heading south. Neither of them looked hugely attractive and both required us to burn an additional 60 but these guys are considered the experts so felt we should pay them some attention. Some of the crew favoured north, largely for the chance to have a glimpse of Barbados, others favoured south and the potential of stronger winds. For a day we got sucked into the ‘south’ route but it didn’t feel right. We couldn’t see us achieving the heady speeds that PredictWind felt we should. We needed a simple strategy and one we would all buy into. So for the last 5 days we have simply pointed straight at the mark, adjusted the twin headsails to suit, and gone about our days and nights without any further thought being given to the matter until, that is, the smell of nutmeg and cinnamon drifts off the gently sloping hills of Grenada and we shall adjust our heading appropriately.
Having decided to proceed straight down the rhumb line (although the crew have mischievously referred to this as the ‘Rum Line’ and have placed a waypoint at Casa Lolo Rum Bar……) means that calculations of time to the finish become easy and, as mentioned above, days left to run = distance to finish divided by 150. Simples.
Although our wonderful ship has carried us this great distance without complaint many of the components are under considerable stresses and strains and it is incumbent upon us to take daily checks to review and identify any wear and tear. Principally we are looking for chafe, which on this boat we have renamed ‘muff’. And it is the Admiral who has been nominated as Officer in charge of Muff a title which, upon reflection, he accepted rather too keenly. I remain hopeful that he properly understands the purpose of this role and does not deviate towards alternative definitions. Officer Muff has indeed identified areas of wear and in some instances we have been able to avoid further damage. But sadly my new (in Las Palmas) spinnaker tack line (£400) got caught under the Anchor and has worn through the outer casing. Bugger. I guess that’s boating. Having spent several weeks in prep mode where the cheques were flying in all directions with gay abandon I foolishly hoped that a couple of weeks at sea might stem expenditure and the budget have a chance to draw breath. Fat chance. One spinnaker, one replacement spinnaker tack and potentially 4 solar panels have put paid to that.
Ce la vie. It’s still fun being out here and on such a wonderfully comfortable and robust ship