Morning all,
Today we find ourselves sailing, if you can call what we are doing that! Up the ‘New English Channel’. Well, it's actually called the Solomon Sea, but, with the island of New Britain on one side, and Bougainville, that bastion of all things french, on the other, we could be, if you squint a little, it could easily be mistaken for the real thing. At dawn this morning we turned off the engine, and resumed our sail towards Sanya. Initially the breeze was lovely, and we were actually sailing with Spinnaker up, faster than we had been motoring. But normal service was soon resumed. This is a part of the world not famous for its wind, and, true to form, it is not delivering very much. We ghost along with the Windseeker up, hoping it will eventually start to do its job and seek out some wind.
A side benefit of this lack of wind is that it has got warmer again. Whilst we had been motoring with the sails down we had rigged the big tent over the boom, and the shade it afforded, and the breeze it funnelled through the cockpit, had almost convinced us that things were cooling down. Luckily the tent is back down, and the blistering temperature on deck is now back up to proper levels, and only exceeded by the temperature below decks. This hasn't stopped yesterday's mothers, Steve and KC, from delivering one of the best Spaghetti Bolognese that I had eaten in a long time, nor today's Holly and Juscinta, from making home made spicy chicken nuggets. In-between complimenting our michelin standard cooking, everyone has been standing on the back end of the boat having sea water showers. Well, it looks more like a water fight, but, in the interests of trying to pretend that this crew are all grown up and sensible, we will pretend that they are showers. The carnage and mayhem brought about by yesterday's game of assassin continues, and the air of mistrust between crew mates has been growing. Seeing your bunkmate murdered by a croc in the engine room makes one extremely suspicious of any request for help in the sail locker or offer of a relaxing game of backgammon!
So now, the boat is festooned with drying clothes, which does add colour to the scene, and possibly a bit of extra sail area? I hope so.
Here we go
Ian and Mike