Alfresco blog from the bridge – 4pm First Dog Watch.
We came on watch at midnight, with Venus shining bright to starboard. The whole disc of the sky was alight with stars, some shooting, others just planes and satellites – someone thought they saw the International Space Station. Of course they hadn’t – but that is what not enough sleep does to you. With no light pollution; you get to realize just how many trillion stars there are. We came off a perfect watch of 4-5 knots, lessons in life, much laughter and nauticalness, shared liquorice allsorts, hot chocolate as Mars rose to port. An excellent start to a great day of sailing.
Beautiful weather, ship and company.
The only improvement to a almost perfect evening would have been to be able to wear a T shirt rather than full oilies and thermals. But hey, it is our summer holiday.
Waking up again at 0730 after a quick nap, ready for our 8am-12 watch, to thick fog and the water-tight doors closing shut with the loud noise of the foghorn in the background. Only a precaution we hope….
James did a wind dance and what do you know it actually worked; by 17:15 we had 25knot winds!
As the winds picked up, the sails filled and the speed increased to around a 9 knot cruising speed (a blooming miracle for The Nelly). However, it did mean quickly learning to walk on an angle :/
Raimeda, our lovely lady from Lithuania, described, in perfect English, that learning to control her manual wheelchair was like trying to ride a wild stallion!!
Race ended 1600 hours; we were 12th in class A, in a fleet of 102 ships, still nearer Sweden than Lithuania, but then the @fun@ began on the yards. We were all up and down hauling and slacking to tidy the ropes ready for our entry in Klaipeda.
But the funniest part of the day was watching Martin get completely soaked by a freak wave!
Anyway until next time,
Jammy Dodger (Jamie)- Watch Leader for the day
On behalf of Aft Starboard.