top speed
posted by Bart at 23:16
The downside of this breaking of the boat 24 hour best run is that I have been biting my nails all night and day, ready to jump outside in case something broke. But nothing broke. We were just flying along. After 1800 I thought it enough, and took the pole out of the jib, reefed the jib and put it back up. Here a nasty incident happened: while I was lowering the sail, at the critical moment, the crest of a wave pulled the sail over the side.. on the wrong side. Immediately, the sheets worked their way under the boat and entangled round the bow sprit. It took 15 minutes of 'Bart-force 11' to get it all back to normal again, without any damage to the sail, boat or myself. From this position I would like to thank Dekker Watersort for providing me with a superb Henri Lloyd suit, in combination with a pair of Musto HPX Ocean boots. Especially these boots are nothing less then perfect! In spite getting seriously wet on the foredeck, I am still completely dry.
I had thought that with the reefed jib, not on the pole, speed would be decidedly slower. Well, slower we go, but where we first did between 8 and 11, we now do between 7 and 9.5. Still bloody fast! The wind has also increased a bit to a full force 7 (as was forecast), and the accompanying waves get more mature, with breaking crests. These waves make great planing conditions (oh, my nails...)!
Back inside the boat, which very gradually dries out and gets a little back to normal, I made supper of a pack of mutton stew and a pack of lime and coriander basmati rice, both from the 'look what I found here' section at Waithrose. Delicious combination!
God only knows what lies ahead of us, but so far (apart from the first night), the weather couldn't have been better! At least, for me. Mervyn Wheatly announced during today's hf-chat session, that he intended to reclaim his starting fee, being utterly disappointed to miss two first weeks of banging into a SW8. As I said, who knows what lies ahead of us, but I don't hope to get these two weeks of SW8!
Bart
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