A morning off
from motoring.
All the signs were there or so I thought. We had just
completed our second night of
motoring, having motored throughout two long days as well. But as I looked out
at dawn I could see a change in the clouds. They were more solid, denser,
darker, more widespread. Could this be at last what we were waiting for, wind.
We still had only four to five knots, but I could sense the signs of a change
were on the way. The direction had changed too, a shift round to the west, the
barometer up a couple of notches. Just after breakfast we shut down the engine.
We had had more than enough motoring and were willing to try anything. It was
time to play with the sails. We dragged the mizzen stay sail from the dark
recesses of the cockpit locker. Up it went. Now we were flying four sails. But
did it make any difference? We tweaked here and there but still we could not get
more than five knots of boat speed. It was pathetic, as if we or Voyageur had
forgotten how to sail, perhaps a combination of the two. The winds just refused
to cooperate, too light, too variable. Completely frustrated at having put in
the work with so little reward we doused it after two hours. Next we tried
poling out the genoa. The result was the same. There is only so much you can do
in 6 to 8 knots of wind. Oh, we cursed. Three hours wasted pfaffing about. We
sat down to lunch at the cockpit table, avocado salad and fresh oranges washed
down with ice cold beer, enjoying the day, the infinite peace and quiet and
ghosted along at between three and four knots. The clouds that held such promise
at dawn nowhere to be seen. We certainly cannot complain about the weather for
it has been quite wonderful. Now at the halfway point all we have to do is the
same again for three days and we should be there by Friday. We should just have
enough fuel if the wind still does not make an appearance. None of the weather
forecasts have tied in with out our Grib file downloads. Not that that makes any
difference. We are not really interested in the racing aspect or tactics, we
just want to get from A to B as quickly and as comfortably as possible. A
glimmer of hope came from the skippers of Asteroid and A Lady on the evening SSB
net. Both now up at 27 degrees north they are sailing in fifteen to twenty knot
winds. Let’s get there we cried and increased the engine revs. The fruit and
veggies are still in plentiful supply with the exception of bananas going soft
so as nothing is ever wasted they were baked in honey rum to follow a chicken
stir fry. I have now become quite accustomed to around six hours sleep a night,
I am even positively chirpy. But when I get to Bermuda I am going to sleep,
sleep,sleep with perhaps a little bit of partying in between.
There are still ten yachts not reporting their daily
positions. I sure hope that they are listening in at 8.55am and 5.30pm local
time for any emergency rally traffic because if we are the one unfortunate
enough to have a problem and they are the nearest yacht to us should we require
assistance.....
Susan
Mackay