MARIPOSA VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY, Sat 11th Dec. DAY 20 - 500 miles to go! (N 14 20, W 52 12)
Mariposa Blog
Robert Newman
Sat 11 Dec 2010 14:55
|
It is Sat morning and we have around 500 miles, which at
the current rate of progress should still take us another 3.3 days
i.e. so we should hopefully be getting in sometime on Tuesday (fingers crossed)
and very frustratingly, for Spiller whose wife and family are already
enjoying a posh hotel in St. Lucia).
It has been hard going the last few days, with quite
heavy swells and regular squalls (for some reason more at night) coming
up on us quickly, which bring bursts of heavy rain and high winds,
which have to be carefully monitored on the radar and when they are a couple of
miles away, the sails have to be taken down, which obviously hinders our
progress and our sleep! 2 nights ago, another yacht relatively close by radio'ed
that they had been hit by a squall which had 50mph gusts (which doesn't sound a lot, but when you have 2 large
expanses of canvas hung up in front of you, believe me it is!) and this
sudden wind power-up caused their boom to break, so we are having
to be particularly diligent at the moment.
Heavy rainfall for most of the time last night, so
the watches all had to sit on deck in their water-proofs (so much for book reading and DVDs; in fact, Rob was going to learn
the guitar, Frosty the harmonica and WIlly to improve his French on this trip
and I have seen little evidence of any of this either)!?! Come this morning when
we could use the rain for a shower or to do some cloth washing the squalls
now keep missing us!.....saying that, here comes
one!..................
Back now squall has passed, but, we now have a
small tear in our no. 2 sail. Everyone is getting quite bashed and bruised, as
the heavy swells bump you round the boat quite forcefully, the rain is making it
quite slippery on deck / on the steps down into the cabin and there have
been a couple of spectacular falls and near misses from flying
objects (e.g. cups, saucers, bottles of Tobasco etc.); thankfully no-one hurt
badly as yet, although Willy did manage to break Spiller's
tea mug in one head-long dive down into the cabin (which was very
up-setting re the tea mug) and Willy also dislocated one of his toes
this morning, so Spiller had to put it back in place, which caused him
(Willy) to yelp a little (....but got him back for the mug incident!). As a
result, Rob is under increasing pressure to nurse in his boat and his crew
safely!).
Running dangerously short on Ginger Nuts and Earl Grey
(now being rationed) and meals are now very basic (as we have not had
the fishing lines out, due to the squall), but, we should now
have enough basic rations, water, fuel....and beer to get us in?!
Spiller however, did make "Banana Surprise" consisting of stewed, over
ripe / off bananas, with ginger, honey, lime juice,
sultanas and dried mixed fruit (recipe patent applied for!),
which was particularly good served over a base of rum-soaked,
ginger nut and he has now followed this success up with "Apple
Surprise".............you get the picture?!
It was Frosty's youngest son's 3rd Birthday yesterday, so HAPPY
BIRTHDAY CHARLIE, from all onboard the Good Ship
Mariposa. |