Well, the wind did pick-up and the engine went straight off. Bliss!
We soon started knocking along at 6 knots and then 7 and then occasionally touching 8 knots and above. We were pounding along with great trails of phosphorescence bursting to leeward and trailing behind. A dirty black cloud appeared and the wind picked-up and I donned my wettie trousers and boots in preparation for a reef…but the moment never came. I put the radar on because it started to rain and I couldn’t judge the visibility ahead. Yup, just the two boats either side of us. And then, there was a really blurry echo unlike that of a ship (that tend to reflect as either large or small sausages depending on their size). This looked like a bunch of angry bees bunched together on screen. At first I thought that it was ‘Sea-clutter’ reflections from the waves but the image remained constant and actually passed us 1.5 miles away. Having confirmed that I could see further than that, I am still puzzled since there was no visible sign of anything from that direction!
The auto-pilot worked well over the night but now I have set-up the wind-powered steering device (the Aries windvane) and we are now completely au-natural and saving power to boot.
Calm seas and 7 knots
Fliss still can’t sleep. She gave up and joined me for my last hour of watch-keeping and then I had one Whisky sleep-inducer and crashed-out completely for my full 4-hour rest period until 08:00 this morning. Hopefully now that sleep has come, it won’t be so difficult next time I want some.
Fliss has just had her sleep-bringer drink and has gone below hopefully for a full set of zzzzzz’s.
So…… I see no ships. We have seen nothing for the past 5 hours.
Apparently, standing in the cockpit with eyes at about 3 metres above sea level, the horizon is only 3.6 miles away. You can see the curvature of the horizon and it’s like sitting on top of a bubble. Maybe a bit more like a goldfish bowl that has a 3.6 mile radius and regardless of how fast or which direction we go, we are always bang-slap in the middle. Beautiful morning under a cloudless sky.
Fliss
Well sleep did prove difficult so I did get up and I couldn’t believe the change of sailing conditions I did suspect it during my “relaxation” time due to being rolled & the noises outside. It was quite windy and we were gunning it! Nadezhda was in her element. Fantastic point of sail and the waves were quite steep.
What surprised Pete & I was the amount of tide we have encountered sometimes more than two knots against us.
So off Pete went to bed. We have decided that the sea berth isn’t ideal when it’s rolling and the best place is in the saloon, so whilst at sea this has now become the bedroom.
We were averaging 7 knots and above and I recorded a top speed of 8:29 knots.
At 8am it was change of watch and I went below and slept like a log.
Great start to our adventure.
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