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Finally the breeze fills in
Friday, 2 October 2009
Tom enjoys some champagne sailing on Cape Breton Island as they reel in Jamaica Clipper...
"Hurrah! Finally we have wind and have left the Canary Islands. Last night we hoisted our windseeker and slowly but surely started to move away from the Canary Islands, with the wind only getting up to about 4 knots it was hard work. As the wind came forward we decided to get further South, so hoisted our lightweight spinnaker, strapped it in pretty hard and got the apparent wind going. Slowly the wind built and came round until this morning we were making about 11 knots in the right direction. We have just peeled to our medium-weight spinnaker as the apparent wind has built up to about 14 knots, we are now charging down Jamaica Clipper at about 11 knots on a nice hot sunny afternoon, champagne sailing for sure!
"With the wind forecast to build slightly we should be able to make back a few places on the boats in the West who are sailing upwind and still have to sail through a light patch of breeze, we should be able to hold this downwind angle for a few days, possibly even to the Equator.
"Life on board is getting a little tougher as we run out of fresh fruit and vegetables, creating something interesting for lunch and dinner is proving a little more difficult. Fresh bread baked daily makes nice toast for breakfast, or to go with lunch. Cooking for a crew of 20 isn't easy, it takes a lot of planning and quantity control is pretty much guesswork. I have never known anyone to gauge the quantity of rice for a meal correctly!
"I am now pretty used to the lack of sleep and am amazed how little I now need to function properly, once I have washed and done some work or sent a few emails I'm left with about three hours' sleep per off watch. Then it's up again for another four hours on deck, I have one watch from 0300 to 0700, which is my least favourite, waking up enough to sail is hard at that time in the morning. The worst thing is when you wake up and are confronted with a spinnaker that needs re-wooling or you need to do a sail change.
"All in all we are pretty happy here on Cape Breton Island, and we just hope we can pull back a few more places in the next few days..."
posted by Hyde Sails at
12:05
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