Blog 4th December
Nightsong
Fri 4 Dec 2009 12:10
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Dear blog
Deliberate mistake in last night's blog - we have
to finish by 0800hrs 10th December St Lucia time to do it in <18 days and
2000hrs 9th December in 17.5 days. I got the time difference of 5 hours the
wrong way round!! And would you believe it 1 hr after writing yesterday's blog
the Duogen failed - luckily only a drive pin - and its back generating
electricity.
An interesting 24 hrs - disappointing in terms of
distance covered 'cos although we were doing +8.5 kts with the gennaker up for
10 hrs yesterday - we were back to 4.5 knots in light winds last night - we dare
not fly the gennaker at night. And just as well we didn't because this morning
at 0810 hrs (still dark) we were hit by our first squall. Tony B had seen it on
the radar but thought it not dangerous so turned the radar off. We were hit
suddenly by heavy rain and winds of 30 knots or so which rotated through 180deg
and gybed the boat although the preventer worked. To get out of irons, we put
the engine on for 2 mins and recovered easily with nothing broken. Lessons
learnt are to keep the radar on at all times at night and in future we will drop
the main on first rain and sail on jib only.
This morning we tried the Code 0 for 1 hr but it
was soon blowing 20 knots and I expect we will be on white sails for the rest of
the voyage, looking at the forecast. 885 miles to go - only twice across the Bay
of Biscay!
We have been very unlucky with wildlife having only
briefly seen dolphins and no whales. We see quite a few roseate terns
(identified by my WI bird book which Tony B gave me) and of course '000's of
flying fish - several of whom have landed on the deck. I hope we see more birds
as we approach land and we live in hope of marine mammals
appearing.
Crew after dinner 3 nights ago - he's losing
weight Mandy!!
 AJB 04/12/09
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