Firefly Log Days 4

Date: 28.05.03 UTC: 1300 Pstn: N 21.36, W 059.37 Track: 046T Wind: E 12-15kn Wx: Sun Cloud: 10% Bar:1017 Temp: 25C 24hr run: 148nm Current boat spd: 6.7kn

Day 2 seems to have gone very slowly, with the angle of heel making life extremely hard work at a time when none of us has managed much sleep or completely acquired our sea legs. Lots of bruises and curses, but thankfully, no problems with the boat. Firefly’s flattish bow sections are making her slam into the largish Atlantic rollers with a judder that goes right through the boat, but slowing her down allows the bows to be knocked off and loses us 10 deg off our best course (which, incidentally, is some 25 deg west of our ideal track).

Beard 1 (skipper Stewart) made an excellent ‘chicken parts’ curry last night, which cheered all but Beard 3, who finally decided the Sea Bands weren’t keeping the squirlies away enough to cope with a second helping.

One of the biggest problems with going to windward is the constant spray, which is forcing us to keep all the hatches firmly closed. This means fighting over the few bits of shade in the cockpit, or trying to grab a quick kip below before you actually melt!

That said, this morning the wind finally dropped briefly to 15kn or so, from 20-25kn overnight, so we grabbed the opportunity to blast the galley and surrounding area with bleacho-zap. It’s nice no longer to have curried onions slices in my morning tea.