Saturday 20^th May 2023

North Atlantic Ocean 38^o 26.9N 13^o 56.0W 

Blog by David  (Time Zone: BST -1)

…… I’m a pretty Fairy, what [on earth} are You?

What a difference a day makes!  All that slamming to windward has eventually borne fruit.  The sky cleared up around lunchtime today, and the 22-30kt wind, as forecast, had backed to  N/NNE, by which time we had made sufficient easting to allow us to bear away,  directly  now to Cape St Vincent..  Our apparent wind is now on the beam.  Thus has two distinct advantages.  Firstly, we are much more stable; sailing faster and “properly”  - not so much slamming, rather rolling as the waves (up to 3.5 meters high)  pass by (mainly under us!) The second is that it’s a lot easier to deal with 30 knots of wind at 90^o to the boat, than 50^o . 

It’s around 23.00 and we have 245 miles to run to Cape St Vincent – barring mishaps.  However, it’s still cool, even in the sun, and every surface is damp amd clammy – as are clothes and bedding etc.

Dinghy Done Go Walkabout.

Aahh, yes … mishaps.  The dinghy made a bid to return to the BVIs today - who can blame it since we have had some proper N Atlantic weather?

I was on watch at around 12.30 today, when there was a very loud “bang” – even my cloth ears picked it up!   I looked around and could see nothing, other than the fact that the flagstaff (a 3.5cm thick wooden pole) had snapped and was lying on the top of the dinghy.   

Now, I knew it had been windy, but not THAT windy!  Closer inspection showed that the dinghy was perched at a jaunty angle – closer inspection still that the davit wire had snapped and so too had the “failsafe” back up spectra strop.  The dinghy was held onto the port davit by only its canvas ‘passage cover’ and a transverse cargo strap.  Most importantly,  the dinghy was sliding aft towards the end of the davits and could shortly be trailing behind us.  That would NOT have been a good look.

I briefly imagined we’d soon be trailing the dinghy, which would then be irrecoverable and would need to be cast off to be found by any other passing vessel,  causing all manner of Hue and Cry (Sp?). I  imagined I’d need to call the Marine Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Falmouth* and explain what had happened in order to prevent the dinghy provoking an international search and rescue incident.  

* There are international MRCC posts in most developed countries, including Spain and Portugal,  I suspect.  I would called  Falmouth  because

1               They speak English

2               So do I – and

3               I have  their number to hand.

“All hands on deck!”,  I cried.

Now,  in the movies, that cry results in every able bodied man rushing on deck to attend to whatever crisis had befallen the ship. I guess the word “rushing” is a relative thing and depends on whether the crew heard you and/or are physically able to respond.  Whatever, speaking as the man with a crisis (and a man with no plan at that stage), it took “forever” for anyone to materialise on deck.

When they did, we were able to jury rig a temporary fix which will last until we get to Gibraltar – Tick.

Ah, yes. It’s now around 23.30 and we still have 240 miles to run to Cape St Vincent – which we should reach later on Monday. We then have about 200 miles fuurther to Gibraltar ………….. running the Orca guantlet.