Hello Team,
How are you doing, how is ‘humpback Wednesday’ going? Can you see your way through to the end of the week? It was with great delight last night that we saw stars in the sky. Over the last few days, it has been nothing but thick fog. Yesterday afternoon there was what we think was a faint sun in the sky, but it clearly needed to go down the gym, as it wasn’t strong enough to punch through the damp murkiness. Currently though, the fog has returned, and visibility is properly less than 150 metres.
The expected front has caught up with us. In the early hours, our time, I instructed that it was time to switch down to a small Yankee in preparation. Just as the new Yankee was going up, the barometer alarm sounded and the yacht laying on its side icon, flashed up, so this was done at the appropriate time. Now we are enjoying some good speeds, reaching towards the International Date Line, making the most of the decent wind, before it leaves the inevitable vacuum behind its wake. The next weather system looks interesting and lies to our front, and a little way off yet. However, Capt’n Miller, (PSP Logistics) summed up its potential nicely in an email. Its ‘a) massive, b) very slow moving, and c) right in the way of us making any decent progress eastwards – tough days ahead.’ Enough said on that and we’ll spend the next days watching the system with intense interest, I can assure you.
In other exciting news, we briefly had a true wind direction and speed. A merchant vessel, YM TopMost, came within a mile of us, so I called him up and asked him.
Sounding somewhat surprised at our request, he duly in informed us, it was 28kts from the east. I wondered how the next watch hand over to his colleague went. Informing the incoming Watch Officer that a bunch of ‘WAFIs’ were out in the North Pacific, and they didn’t know the wind speed or direction! (For those of you looking slightly puzzled regarding WAFI? I will give you 3 out of the 4, wind, assisted, idiots.)
Below decks there has been enjoyment of less than a 45º degree heel on the boat, as the wind veered, allowing us to close reach instead of being closed hauled (hard on the wind). I personally took the opportunity to freshen up, change my base layers, talcum powder my feet and treat myself to fresh merino socks, pure luxury. I then noticed that the vagrant smell that had been loitering around my bunk space disappeared as well, strange that. However, the major highlight below decks was last night's supper, ‘Chippy’s’ (Nick Pomfret’s) beef stew and rice. I think it's the best meal we have had since we left Airlie Beach. In fact it was so good that the crew unanimously voted that he should be made Chef for the rest of the trip. Well unanimously, this wasn’t quite correct and Nick protested, quite strongly actually, although he was smiling a lot, as he prefers helming to cooking! (Based on last night's performance the latter might just be the slightly better skill set, but please don’t tell him that!)
Today (10 April) is National Siblings Day. Personally, I was brought up as an only child, that really annoyed my sister and brother. Hi, Jilly and Richard, hope you are both well and looking forward to seeing you in August.
Finally, Gemma, hope you’ re feeling better and the pain is bearable. Make sure Mark spoils you rotten, that way you’ll help keep him out of our hair ;-)
Think that’s all for now, standing by this channel.
David, Maisie and the Bekezela crew. (UTC+10)