Guido's Back!

Morning All,

Yesterday was wonderful. Well not particularly for distance, we only made 99 miles to Noon, but just because it was sunny and the sea was down and the winds light.

I had been going to spoil myself and have bacon and eggs for breakfast but decided to keep the bacon because it’ll last for ages still so ended up with porridge again. I had a bit of a wash up in the cockpit, face, neck, behind the ears, armpits, unmentionables, feet etc. and put on clean clothes which was great and most invigorating. I’ve decided not to shave this week, I’ve never had a beard before and am wondering; a) can I actually grow one and b) will it look awful. I’ll maybe send a photo before I shave it off depending on how it looks.

Good news this morning from Guido; he turned back when his self steering vane was smashed and then his autopilot also failed, anyway it looks like he’s replaced or repaired them and set out again on the chase, last night he was. 49 42n and 4 41W heading to the South of a low sweeping in from the West and feeling a bit depressed that he’s over a week behind us and likely to miss us in the US. Fair winds and Bon Voyage to Guido!!

I made a nice moroccan lamb mince dish last night, or should have done but think that I ended up using pork mince instead of lamb, it was delicious in any case but I suspect that it wouldn’t have gone down that well with the average Moroccan where pork’s not normally on the menu.

The wind had picked up by yesterday evening to about 15 knots and overnight there were a couple of thunderstorms with the first one bringing 35 knots of wind, I was in the process of pulling in the third reef when the wind came and it was all a bit exciting for a wee while, I finished the reef without much hassle, left the tidying up for the time being and rolled up the genoa 3/4 until it past. Having waited a bit afterwards and wondered, I ended up going back to 2 reefs and 3/4 genoa again, only to repeat the whole process again in about an hour. Anyway all fine still.

This morning I wanted to tack but with the inner forestay rigged I need to furl the genoa, or at least nearly furl it, before tacking and by the time I’d done that we were going so slowly she wasn’t going to come around so I ended up gybing round instead (ie turning downwind and putting the stern through the wind instead of the bow), I suspect this may become a normal tactic as it’s not the first time I’ve had to do it.

Replies to Comments

Thanks Phil and Sarah, Patrick, Nancy, Lyd, Rob, Colin and Mandy, Jane and Colin for welcome comments on the blog. Graham kindly forwards them to me. Rob, on principle I hate bottled water and try not to touch the stuff, I carry a case just as an emergency, I take whichever water comes from any hose. Colin I’m hopeless with names and can’t place Ron from Lanzarote although I’m sure I ought to be able to, but will look forward to reading your stuff when I have an internet connection. I had a pleasant few months in Thailand / Malaysia / Indonesia on Blue Leopard several years ago.

Jock