Saturday, December 6, 2014

wet sailing

We had a clear goal: By noon be at less than 400 n.m. from the line. And it
was looking good until 11:30. That's when the showers started steeling all
the wind. And it kept coming heavy rain after heavy rain. At some point we
even thought that there was enough time for Tifille to go to the bathroom.
So she went up, gave it a first try and had to run for cover before
anything could be achieved. Then eventually she went up again and without
wasting time to look for the proper aligment with the earth magnetic field
she did it and came back down in a hurry. The afternoon looks much better.
We are doing 6.5 knots on a direct course towards the finish line with 384
n.m. to go, so it looks good for coming in on the 9th early morning
like maybe 9 in the morning. that would be great !

wet sailing

We had a clear goal: By noon be at less than 400 n.m. from the line. And it
was looking good until 11:30. That's when the showers started steeling all
the wind. And it kept coming heavy rain after heavy rain. At some point we
even thought that there was enough time for Tifille to go to the bathroom.
So she went up, gave it a first try and had to run for cover before
anything could be achieved. Then eventually she went up again and without
wasting time to look for the proper aligment with the earth magnetic field
she did it and came back down in a hurry. The afternoon looks much better.
We are doing 6.5 knots on a direct course towards the finish line with 384
n.m. to go, so it looks good for coming in on the 9th early morning
like maybe 9 in the morning. that would be great !

Thursday, December 4, 2014

coming in

The spinnaker (actually a gennaker) was successfully set up yesterday at
5:20 p.m. TU. Since then jp , arthur and myself relayed each other at the
helm. Arthur needs constant adjusment with the wind changing constantly in
direction and force This morning we 669 n.m. from the finish line our speed
being anything between a and 6 knots. The weather is nice with few clouds,
hot sun but still enough swell to make us roll heavily. We can still, if
the wind picks up arrive on the 8th, more probably on the 9th. Yesterday JP
redid the gaz connections and made the stove work properly. he cooked a rib
of 2,2 pounds whch was delicious.As for drinks before meals, we ran out of
Ricard, Cassis (for the kir) rum went long time ago except for one shot
that we kept for the first one to see land. but westill have enough wine,
red and white, to take us to the finish

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

sail in sight

This morning at 08:00 local time (TU-2) JP saw a sail on the horizon. It
got nearer quickly because we were on opposite tacks and at 08:40 TUMI boat
number 41 sailed across our bow around 50 meters away. It the gained on us
but slowly so JP decided to set the gennaker. Unfortunately the sock kept
wrapping itself around the sail and after one hour of hard work on the part
of JP, the attempt was aborted to be resumed after lunch. The weather is
postcard standard, blue sea, few clouds and a soft following wind around 15
knots. Today JP is cooking the last piece of meat while it is still safe to
eat with a fridge out of order. All in all the loss of perishable has been
limited and we will now switch to non perishable. We have enough to last
until we arrive in Martinique. Then we will take care of the bacteria with
good rum punch and spicy food.

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

la calmouille

cette fois ci on est bien dedans avec encore 877 n.m. a couvrir. Le vent
apparent ne depasse plus dix noeuds et la vitesse du bateau est plus proche
de 4 que de 5 noeuds. A moins que Eole ne fasse un petit miracle, nous
risquons de n'arriver que le 10, jour de l'arrivee de laurence et Marianne.
Cela va etre juste et nous risquons egalement de ne pas etre prets a
repartir le 12 pour Puerto Rico comme prevu. Les voiles battent bruyamment
et le bateau roule car la mer ne s'est pas encore aplatie. c'est dans ces
conditions que la patience devient plus que jamais une vertu cardinale. Il
commence aussi a faire chaud et on est rapidement en transpiration.
Vivement Mardi prochain. Nous avons encore environ 50 heures demoteur dans
le reservoir et nous comptons bien en profiter au maximum.

Monday, December 1, 2014

New disaster

This morning the return of the rolling got me to up on deck.There I found
out that we wereagain without mainsail. It opeened up in the upper part
between the back line and the front.Jean-Paul made it clear to me that in
his mind I was responsible for that new incident for havingset the main
sheet to tight when we got beccalmed during the night and I set the main in
the mddle while restarting the engine and that pulled to hard on the back
of the sail and caused the backline to rupture and then the sail to open
up. JP has every right to be mad at me after the hard work he put in for
the first repair. He is now attempting to repair again. I should not allow
myself to be depressed, but I am. Impossible now to know when we will
finish and to think that it probably is my doing is not a` joyful thought !
To make matters` worse, the wind has dropped considerably and we are moving
at 3.5 knots ! And there are still 1030 n.m. to go. You can do the maths.