Monday 28 November  2022

17^o 45.8N  33^o 02.6 W

Today's Blog by David  (Time zone: UTC -2 … nearly )

Day 8.   Crew morale is good, although at this stage in a long passage people are getting bored.  

Are we nearly there yet?  Frankly no.  We have sailed about 1,265 miles and but still are c1,650 from our destination.  We have been making good speed through the water but we can’t sail directly toward our destination – we are having to Gybe down wind.  Probably 10/11 days to go L.

Two exciting  things happened today. 

The GYBE Mk2

The first was our second gybe of the trip. 

Although it probably looked to you as if we were sailing pretty much direct to our destination, for the last 24 hours we had been gradually tending north of our desired course – but by this morning we were heading too far north – perhaps only 10-15 degrees but there is a “hole”,  about 4 days ahead,  into which we would rather not fall.  (This isn’t a physical hole, not a  plughole or drain, but a “hole in the weather” – a hole in which there is not much wind! )

This morning’s forecast (we download one every other day) said that if we kept going straight on we would end up motoring for one and a half days. And so it was that we GYBED … in the belief that we might avoid motoring altogether (I hae mae doots!).

Double Happy Hour Mk2

Every degree of longitude we cross represents a 4 minute change in local time; every 15 degrees -  an hour.  So the further west we go, if we don’t change the clock, it will be daylight at midnight ….  and dark pretty much until midday.

We are sailing from 13W to 62W so that involves four time zones. As it happens, we need to change the clock 5 times because the Canary Islands, although they are geographically at UTC-1, maintain their time at UTC in order that they maintain the same time as mainland Spain. So we need to change the clock five times – which means five Double Happy Hours! WayHaay!

HOUSE KEEPING

A couple of admin things

Crockery on board

I you were paying attention, the other day I mentioned that I had trouble getting the crew’s dinner into their “dog bowls”  -  I and sure you thought this some analogy or another.  But it was not -- because the fact of it is that we put the bone china away at sea (for obvious reasons)  and we dust off and polish our “at sea” crockery, the boat’s silver - viz:

A tip from the Whitbread Race

Conditions at sea

I think it fair to say that the “serene and regal” passage on Serendipity came to an end  on Saturday.    Conditions have ‘picked up’ somewhat. The slow Atlantic swell is here – a 2 metre swell with about a 45 second period. It’s on the quarter, so it now picks up the port side of the stern (port quarter), rolls the boat to starboard and then tosses us back to port as the swell passes under us. If that first roll to starboard coincides with a gust then the boat leans over and tries to round up to wind, tipping everyone unprepared out of bed.

The night before last, Peter’s watch dumped me unceremoniously onto the floor a couple of times,  leading me to rig up my restraints:

I’m sure that many will be reminded of a sarcophagus or an intensive care bed  (plenty of room for tubes and pipes).  In case you are interested, the supports cross over at the head of the bed – if I don’t do that, Peter still rolls me out over the restraint  (aka ‘lee-cloth’)  and onto the floor!!

Errr .. that’s about it.