Date 16 May Time 11:49 boat tim
Hello from Tioram
More to talk about today. Yesterday afternoon we finally motored out of the calm and the westerly wind filled in a little later than expected. We put up the cruising chute and set off towards the Azores at a good pace. The wind was fairly gentle but after a couple of hours the halyard parted at the top of the mast and the chute went into the water. Quick action from the crew managed to recover the cruising chute with no damage and a quick trip to the top of the mast by the skipper reeved another halyard. All done in double quick time. By that time it was getting late and we decided to sail on main and poled out genoa through the night. This morning we are still at it and going well in broadly the right direction. The reason for halyard failure was just old age and wear ovr the masthead block. We are checking other halyards this morning.
Life on board is not too bad at the moment with the skipper doing his sun sights and others reading and listening to ipods. We are still eating fresh stuff and the frozen meat is looking good for another 3 days.
We just got a contact on the AIS ( a neat bit of kit that tells us other ships are around and who they are) from Sea Traveller a 150 ft motor yacht who was going to pass close by. A chat with the friendly Aussie skipper alerted them to our position who has moved to motor around us.
James is now practicing his astro nav and Malte his steering. Skipper is looking happier as the gennie is ploncking and the water maker purring, filling up those tanks exhausted by all that laundry. John has been regaling the crew with stories that on his boat everyone has to wash in 2 litres per day.
Our weather routing is now getting important as we are over a third of the way and need to make sure we pick up wind but not to much.
The Ula award for the day is no contest. It has to go to the skipper for going up the mast at sea.
Cheers from Tioram
Yacht Tioram sailing blog.....11 years sailing the seas and oceans. 