Excellent tuna salad sandwiches for lunch yesterday with the last of the fresh salad. Courtesy of assistant chef Martin. Winds dying to 7 or 8 knots slowing us down although “we are still racing” according to the captain. Crew relaxing reading, sunbathing and sleeping during the afternoon. Skipper continues to tweak and faff.
Late afternoon Skip proposes a change of sail to improve speed – let out mainsail .... under equipment failure.. the vang. Sheared at the boom and main unuseable until jury rig can be sorted out. Only parasail in tact now – but we’re still racing (?).
Fishing maestro Phil has a senior moment and fails to switch reel to noisy and unknown fish strips all 625 meters out. Takes four of us to retrive the line but the fish, also bored, leaves the scene.
Phil redeems himself by catching a 2 feet long Wahoo (lovely tiger stripes) which we decide to release.
Overnight, with a full moon, the wind dies even further to 3 to 5 knots and we have to leave our chosen course to preserve parasail – getting nowhere – but we are still racing (aren’t we?).
Early morning tropical storms with gusts up to 32 knots and Jasmina is flying. The team are huddled in the cockpit trying to keep dry.
For the first time in 5 days we have company on the horizon – radio contact with Mojomo and Captain Blind – both seem to be having equipment problems. Rivendell, an Oyster 82 is 20 miles to starboard.
Our current position shows are poor day, only 133 miles whereas others manged 160 plus. We are still (only just but not for much longer) first in class and have slipped to 22nd overall. We should have gone further South!!
Finally Skip and crew are worried about a medical condition, Martin’s blue feet. Not sure if contagious but we will report if it gets worse. Dr. Madden, any thoughts? We told Martin we’ve never seen a blue cow so we don’t think it’s his shoes.
Now using the main boom as a spinnaker pole – still racing(?).
This blog by Steve (Cabin Boy).
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Googled blue feet, possible cause and treatment at following address:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/r/raynauds_phenomenon/intro.htm
Thanks for your dayly log, makes very exciting reading.
Bon vent
G
Stuart are you trying to wreck your new toy? Sounds like the mast is the only thing left standing. Top ten position with the boat still intact would be a very acceptable outcome. You don't want the boat to spend the winter in the boatyard! Now a question for chef Martin and fisherman Phil ...was that a fresh tuna sandwich?
ReplyDeleteBlue Feet - sounds like poor circulation have any of his other extremeties turned blue ?
ReplyDeletemaybe try some asprin to thin his blood a little ?
Love reading the blog Andy! continue to have a safe trip. Struggling with the technical stuff - going to google "tweak and faff"?? - Gill
ReplyDeleteHey, somebody's been telling Porkies. Cheryl Barby says you've finished and are sitting with your feet up waiting for all the other boats to finish. Either there's Chinese whispers going on or this is one big hoax. Either way, I'd still rather be sat in the cockpit trying to practice a one handed Bowline rather than sat in the office at ten past five on a Friday - Even if it was only Gosport Marina!
ReplyDelete