Week Four to Antigua
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Sun 15 Mar 2020 18:00
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11:49.10 N 51:41.46 W
Week Four to Jolly Harbour,
Antigua
Sunday the 8th from
18:00. Quite rough. The last two sets of four hours we had gone up to 24 nmiles
each. Overnight a bit like being in a washing machine and leaning to the left
something to have to get used to after such a long time.
  ‘Happy Pictures’ from
Sunday and Monday.
 Monday the 9th. Got
up to an overcast sky, the sea is making life feel like it’s lived in permanent
rinse cycle. My six until ten sleep ended up with me
making a nest on the bedroom floor – haven’t had to do that since crossing to
Barbados, all those years ago. Rummaging in the freezer I found a little pot of
baked beans (about half a tin), thoughts.....Mutton pie, circle of mash with a
lush gravy pond, one side of the pie baked beans, what to put on the other.
Tinned Brussel sprouts showed their ankles to me. OK this will be a first but
made for a nice change of colour. In my hand went to grab ooooooooeeeeeee,
slimy.......
Bear ate contentedly (when does he
not....) but he did say the sprouts kept coming back to
say ‘hello’ for the rest of the day.
Late afternoon the sun came out, the
sea smoothed a bit and the wind stayed around the 17 knot mark, sooooooo much
more comfortable. Miles in twenty-four hours was 159.
   Tuesday
bits.
Tuesday the 10th.
The Sat phone has been a tricky mistress, very difficult to get a signal and
then get the Outlook program to tune in etc, result, we have chewed through our
minutes at an alarming rate. Emails to insurer to sort next lot, surveyor –
booking needed to allow insurers to proceed, haul out date....quite a list in
fact. Sooooo this morning my first task was to telephone Mailasail with minutes
left. Immediately Helle (Lady of the Office) understood and top up happened very
quickly. It turns out that the system had choked on an incoming email but Sue
(Queen of the Office) sorted it out. So wish every company we dealt with was
this efficient. Best we have got from the surveyor is “Hi Guys, let me know when
you are in.” Yet another email saying we need an actual date. Bear will have to
deal with these people in person as at the moment I want to rip limbs
off....
Turned the freezer off and Bear will
eat as things defrost, today wahoo, rice and ratatouille. Bear pulled the
generator cord and it snapped off somewhere inside. We tried Mex train after I
beat Bear five nil at backgammon, but we had to give up when I got a lapful of
dominoes on the 9’s.
Overcast but still trotting along at
around six knots. I went to lay down, snuck the window open for a few seconds to
turn the air around and yes – I took a small wave. So hope tomorrow shapes up a
little better than today.......
  Wednesday the 11th.
Got up to sunshine with plenty of seaweed or sea moss
floating by in great blankets. Bear had carbonara with soaked noodles as
I appear to have run out of spaghetti (that’s a first). Very nice even if not the real thing.
  ‘Happy
Picture’ and a full moon.
At 19:45 we were 606 nmiles north of
Sao Luis on the northern coast of Brazil. We have only had to altered the
direction by a point or two since Sunday.
Overnight I actually put a tee shirt
on, I very much enjoyed Life in Cold Blood.
 Thursday the 12th.
Overcast when I got up this morning. Got Bear to check through five blogs whilst
I enjoyed my fibreglass and carrot...... Bear had spag bol with soaked
noodles, we saw a huge herd of flying fish and managed two
rounds of Mex Train. This was achieved by folding the
table – to use the edges, Bear’s shower towel – for a non-stick surface or
trains coming in straight lines from the right and the bone pile in the dom box.
Two rounds was enough with this set-up.......
 The weirdest thing was having a group
of four fishermen in a circle around us. One was
getting closer and closer, nothing to be seen as we both stared out like
meerkats. When the AIS said the one vessel was 500 metres from us, it suddenly
turned 90 degrees to the right and sped away. So, whatever we were seeing the
fishermen were too. We carried on looking to see if we had missed any net
markers or net buoys but we saw nothing at all. Weird
indeed.
 Friday the 13th. Got
up to a sunny morning and the wind was perfect for an average of six and a half
knots. Very little alterations needed. At 12:10 we are above
the Amazon Basin with 1000 nautical miles to go (995 on the IPad but plus
five to get around the corner to Jolly Harbour).
Yay and Yehaa. Bear enjoyed chicken
pie, mash and baked beans. We managed another two rounds of Mex Train. For some
reason I was very tired at 14:00. As the sea was so smooth I chanced the window
above me to about an inch. Yes.......At 15:15 I took an ingress, not so much a
wave as a big overflow, no noise but a huge amount of water that fell to my left
soaking the quilt which I have piled up to stop me falling out (if things
suddenly got ‘big’). Bear came to the aid of my plaintive cries. Fortunately the
rest of the day tried to make it up to me.
18:00 - Biggest mileage recorded yet
on this trip at 165 nautical miles in the last 24 hours.
Bear enjoying re-reading his Harry
Bosch collection whilst listening to his music on shuffle. Amazing what I’m listening to, must be some of yours as I have
no clue. Good though.
At our 02:00
handover I was spending a penny and saw something glistening on the bedroom
floor, well actually on the towel that Bear had put there to mop up any of the
ingress incident. I wrapped the unwelcome visitor’s tail in some tissue and
handed it out to Bear. Mmmm, not a flying fish but long and
silver.
At 03:25 I saw
us through the 900 nautical mile to go, yay. Overnight I enjoyed Life in the
Undergrowth.
 Bear sleeping with the
drying quilt.
Saturday the 14th. I
came out at ten to find we have 855 nmiles left to do, really beginning to feel
like we can rather than if we can. If we carry on as we are we may arrive on
Thursday or Friday. YAY and YEHAA.
Finished our game of Mex Train on the
fourth attempt, I was well in the lead but the fours to zero was awful and I
lost badly. Growling. Bear finished the carbonara today with yes, soaked
noodles.
13:30, we have ten degrees north and
ten degrees west to complete our journey. The wind remains steady at 12-15 knots
and we are trotting along at 5.8 – 6.3 knots.
A long way off a chum passed by but I
loved her name, Happy River.
  ‘Happy
Picture’ and a very, very fluffy
boy.
 Blog
checking.
Sunday the 15th.
Until 18:00. Overnight I had to put a tee shirt on, definitely going north a
bit. Got up at ten to sunshine and 714 nmiles to go. Soaked noodles and took
spag bol from fridge – the last of the pasta meals (now just a bag of cooked
mince, a beef curry and a steak and pepper pie left of the pre-cooked meals from
the freezer now dwelling in the big fridge). Bear had watched Bucket List (lots of laughter and a few tears).
...
12:55: 700 nmiles to go YAY and
YEHAA. We are now north of Cayenne in French
Guyana and a bit north of Tobago and slightly south of Grenada (if you draw
straight lines from our position).
Backgammon – a bad week for mw, when
I got up at 18:00 I needed a revenge match winning five zero HUH. which brings
us to 37 each, but you now have US$212, double
HUH.
Mex Train Doms which I was leading by
miles now stands at 15 to me and 14 to Bear. Yes, but if
today had been different – well, after the 12’s to 9’s my score was
10 to Bear’s 391 so I was in with a massive chance. 8’s to 5’s I had 90 to
Bear’s 430 and I had a magical 4’s to 0’s and scored nothing. I ended up with 802 which I think is a personal
worst......
 A huge
moon.
Nautical miles completed = 3447 –
This week our average has been 6.25 knots, average for the trip 5.13 knots, not
bad at all. Blanket cloud just now so hoping for a bit more
wind....
ALL IN ALL THE WEEK FLEW BY
AS DID THE MILES
FAST
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