Day 14
We finally did it! We got it up. The Parasailor that is. After many days of forlorn hope finally weather conditions allowed us to hoist it. A steady if slightly fishtailing wind of 15 knots gave us the right conditions to sail for a good 2 hours or so with just the Parasailor up and all other sails furled. Initially it was slightly unstable, waving to and from in front of our bow, but once the wind steadied and built up to a good 18 knots, it was just perfect. Speeds were approaching 9 knots, and towards the end when the wind picked up to a good true 20 knots (the Parasailor's recommended upper limit) it was as steady as a rock and pushing us along at almost 10 knots. As it was approaching dusk and the winds appearing as if it might increase, we took the decision to dowse it. It was a wonderful end to a slightly dull day, in that the sun hardly made an appearance at all, and the winds had been a bit fickle. Not quite the idyllic trade wind sailing conditions one would expect. We celebrated with a few extra rations of grog and the Moving Hearts playing Irish folk rock at full pelt through the cockpit loudspeakers.
We now have approximately 4 days of sailing left and hope to be in St Lucia by this coming Friday. We are not high up on the leader board but at least we never used our engine nor pushed our trusty, comfy, safe and secure Amel to the limit. No doubt the ARC participants will be discussing the unusual weather conditions ad infinitum in the various bars in Rodney Bar, but we'll be proud of our achievement of crossing the pond, a first for all of us, save for Ellie who has done it last year.
Roger
At last the Parasailer - something to play with. Well we got it up, second time of asking. Well we are a mature crew. And then with a little trimming, Poespas steadied and sped on through the waves (see above) .We then sat looking at our new toy, smiling, taking pictures and drinking the obligatory can of beer.yes and the sun was setting.i nearly held andy's hand.. I didn't..obviously we just cooked supper together instead tuna.
I'm not sure whats going on with the fishing but we haven't had a bite for two days, let alone a fish. So concerted effort tomorrow, going to get both rods out and different lures..otherwise it's Pasta..
Talking of food as we mainly are. Lunch today, even though I say so myself,was inspired. We decided that tuna sandwiches were the order of the day.Everthing fresh obviously.. Tuna, bread. but what to have with it ? Let me recommend the following. Finely chop some gherkins from the jar at the back of the cupboard, add some moyonaise from the nearly empty jar in the door of the fridge, salt , pepper,dried dill and a couple of spoonfulls of liquor from the gherkin jar, to taste. Mix thoroughly and spread onto second slice of bread before enclosing tuna in milk bread heaven. (Tuna quickly seared in butter).mmmmmmmnnnnn
Sorry, re-living a bit of a moment there.
Great to get Parasailer up and looking forward to a great final few days
Pig's leg still under dinghy - may not be there tomorrow !
Fish for supper
Parasailer flew :
Mike..Over
'Singing in the Rain'
Had the 'morning' with anton and the pig's leg and after taking over from mike for some reason it felt prudent to put the foully jacket on. As if an omen within the the hour one of those atlantic\tropically squalls hit. In torrential rain you wouldn't believe and wind gusts of 35kts I got a bit of sail in and then thought I'd best trim the mizzen. At that point the entire contents of the collected water on the bimini poured down my neck. It reminded me of the Morecombe and wise 'singing in the rain sketch'. How I laughed..
I detected some degree of mirth from the other two but perhaps I've had too many single watches. Anton continues to deliver the goods with typical Foruno efficiency. He has a range of inputs from the chartplotter and the gps. Every now and then he sticks in a cheeky one that sends the boat careering sideways down the face of a wave. Its at these points I wonder if he also gets an input from the cd player and roger's classic rock album. It can only be AC\DC and I don't mean electrically.
Major celebration with the parasailor flying as it should. Launch and recovery was akin to some demented bellringer on the foredeck but all worth it for the effect and we can only get slicker. A notable outbreak of morale.
Defo feelings of being on the 'home' straight to some tropical paradise. Oh its raining again..
Andy out