Tuesday, 20th July 2010 Night 5
00.00hrs The wind was still holding up nicely, even though the weather forecasters suggested it would get very light perhaps as low as 3/4 knots....... that's non existent for us, and we are so determined to do this leg without using the engine.
00.30hrs The wind eventually went very slack, as predicted, down to 7 knots, so we sailed just with the blue spinnaker on its own and made 2.5/3 knots over ground with the current against us.
At this stage,
Distance traveled...........................804 miles
Distance to the Great Barrier Reef...189 miles
06.30hrs The wind had increased to 10 knots and we were making 5.10 knots, again, just with the spinnaker. It was another beautiful starry night, and the half moon vanished at about midnight, a beautiful sailing night. We had a real heavy dew during the night, it looked as if someone had turned a hose on the boat for the night, and it was also very chilly to boot.
09.00hrs RADIO CALL. The radio call today was conducted by Tucanon a U.K. catamaran, and the master of communications for today was none other than the lovely " Bubbley Bev ". Anyway, Crazy Horse and Ocean Jasper are still well ahead of us, but their advantage is reduced to about 38 miles, we may yet have to rely on our handicap. Then Kalliope was after passing us, but they used their engine, and again they are also giving us time. It seems most of the fleet motored at some stage during the night, and the penalties for motoring are draconian.
10.30hrs More blinking holes in the spinnaker, there has to be a gremlin up there on the mast and what's more we need to find it before it claims another spinnaker, 3 good size holes, so we took down the chute and repaired it once more, and rehoisted it after 35 minutes. Scotty took a trip up the mast and taped up anything that looked sharp in an effort to stop the chute getting damaged. Skipper lost a few pounds winding him up the mast, that's the exercise for a month!
12.00hrs And all is well
Distance traveled...................................846 miles
Distance to the Barrier Reef....................143 miles
14.00hrs The wind had gone very light again as predicted by the forecasters.
18.00hrs The wind had increased again and we had some great sailing in beautiful flat seas and blue clear skies. Now we had 18/20 knots of wind, and with the spinnaker and mainsail, we were doing 8/9 knots.
19 00hrs As it got dark, well nearly dark, cause the 1/2 moon was keeping the whole place bright, we got invaded by red footed "Boobies". 4 landed and took up residency on the top of the mast and effected our wind instruments severely, beggers, and nothing would move them, we tried using the fog horn on them, and they just thought we were playing games with them, ahhhhhhh!!! Then we had another one or two on the crosstrees, and another on the life rails, just by the cockpit. How he managed to stay there and balance himself was a sight to see, like he was only a couple of feet from us. The mast was like a " Boobie Tree " and of course we had all our Nav. lights on for good measure, they must have thought that the lights outlined a Boobie runway.
20.30hrs Aileen served up a delicious stuffed roast chicken dinner in the "Starlight Restaurant", with roast potatoes, carrots, peas, bread sauce, and crispy strips of bacon. Yum yum, the ships reputation lives on, especially for the 3 fat ducks.
Later, Skipper and Scotty took down the spinnaker, and rolled out the Yankee (Headsail) and not a minute too soon, no sooner than we had it all stowed away, the wind increased to 27 knots, boy were we glad we made that call, just instinct.....
Another moonlight night we bomb along towards the Great Barrier Reef, and we are all excited about this destination...
That's it for now.
Signed :- Stephen Hyde (Skipper)