Hi everyone and thanks as always for your emails ..... So nice to hear from so many people, and is always a highlight of our day, so keep them coming if you have a spare few minutes to take the time to write :)
Well it's just after 7pm on day 10 as we head into night 10. We had a good night last night with stars and nice acceptably comfortable seas.
That all changed today :) At around 11am the wind came up to 20 knots and with that the sea state started changing rapidly. Ben and I put in one reef and that helped tame the boat a little.
Guds had been napping downstairs and as she came up a huge wave broke over the boat and soaked everything. Sadly our bedroom top hatch was slightly open and in came a sheet of salt water, leaving a pool on our bed. @$*?!!!!! Not good!!!
That set the work load for the remainder of the day. Poor Guds stripped the bedding and we ended up doing 2 loads of washing.... One for duvet and one for the duvet cover and sheets. Of course it's a down duvet so does not dry quickly! We are so happy I installed a washing machine on the boat!!!
It's not all bad as a few nights ago a flying fish dropped down our again open hatch. I smelt something fishy but upon inspection with a flashlight only found a few scales on deck so figured the guy had made it back into the sea after skidding over the deck. Two days later the smell got worse and after a closer inspection found the offending deceased flying fish wedged between our bed and our new mainsail stored in our cabin. That took me about an hour to clean, so at least the sheets got another wash today :)
By late this afternoon the wind was consistently over 20 knots and Cool Runnings was doing 8 to 9 knots through the water, but a 1.5 knot current against us slowed our VMG (velocity made good) to Tobago to 6.5 to 7 knots.... Very frustrating when we are actually sailing through the water at 8 to 9 knots! The wind continued to increase and with it the seastate, so Ben and I put in a second reef. That tamed things further and made the ride a bit more acceptable, although still pretty bouncy and rough.
The wind is now down to 18 to 20 knots as it gets dark, but we have decided to keep 2 reefs in tonight, just as a precaution in case it comes up again or a squall hits us. It will mean going at least 1 knot slower, but it's peace of mind at least!
We are nearing the halfway mark and now have 1,581 miles remaining before we arrive in Tobago..... Bring it on.... Blue skies and turquoise water.... We can't wait and keep that mental picture in our minds on days like today :)
The other big milestone for us was crossing the equator 2 nights ago. At around 10.30pm we crossed the equator back into the Northern Hemisphere ..... It was a low key cerebration aboard as we are already " trusty shellbacks", but we did ask Neptune to grant us safe passage :)
So with that back to another night watch for me.... Like Guds said in the last blog update, there is no real rest or stopping.... We just continue westward towards the beautiful Caribbean :)
Cheers from Dave
Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.
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