Trucial Coast, Day 7 – Wildlife Report
OK, let’s begin today with the promised wildlife update! Between the three of us we’ve heard / seen dolphins on three or four occasions. The best of these was day one but even that wasn’t all that satisfactory as the boat was doing its own Cresta Run at the time and we weren’t really in a position to appreciate the dolphins. We’ve seen quite a few seabirds, especially on day 3. I think they were mainly gulls and petrels (I’m no Bill Oddy….). And we’ve now entered the realm of the flying fish – they’re almost ever-present, and we’ve cleared a few off the deck as well.So the sum total of wildlife thus far: a few dolphins, some birds and some flying fish (mostly alive, 3 dead). Watch out Attenborough, this will make the Blue Planet look like Stone Age broadcasting.
I’ve decided that the Atlantic has a split personality. During the day, she’s given us pretty nice weather and good winds by and large, but at night she likes to remind us who’s boss…. We had another interesting night last night – we were three sail reaching just south of westwards as daylight faded in about 20 knots of wind and creaming along, hitting 9 knots in the gusts. As the wind was getting up we reefed right back – took the mainsail down to 2 reefs and rolled up part of the genoa, significantly reducing our total sail area. And yet still there were ups and downs during the night – the genoa eventually had to be taken right in as we were experiencing gusts of 30 knots and very lumpy seas. I was off watch for all of this, down below not sleeping. Imagine strapping a mattress to a bucking bronco and that gives you some idea of what our cabins were like last night! When I came on watch at 3 a.m. the wind had bent round to the east and we were on a very broad reach (the wind coming from almost directly behind us) – all we had up was a double reefed main and the staysail, but we still hit 8.5 knots on a few occasions!
We’re now running in front of the wind with twin headsails and making 7-8 knots. So…. we have little fluffy clouds, an easterly wind, twin headsails rigged and lots of flying fish – I think we have definitely arrived in the Trades!
Our distance to the finish is just over 1900 miles now, and our projected total distance is about 2800 miles. So we’re anticipating passing our halfway point on Tuesday unless the Atlantic throws up some more surprises! We’ll have a bit of a knees-up to celebrate: invite a few friends over, cook a 5 course dinner with some good wines, finish it off with a cheese plate and a couple of bottles of port. If you’re in the area, let us know and swing by, it’ll be great to see you!
As has become traditional, I’ll leave you with a teaser to bring you back – I’ll be giving a run down of a typical day on board Trucial Coast. So if you want to know what all your favourite trans-Atlantic sailors get up to, tune in again tomorrow!
