Spending the last couple of days virtually becalmed might have tried my patience were it not for a little rhyme my grandmother taught me when I was a wee nipper:
“Patience is a virtue,
Virtue is a grace,
Grace is a little girl
Who never washes her face.”
Whenever I think of this it makes me smile, so I smiled a lot as I drifted aimlessly with the Gulf Stream. I also thought of a book I’d just read about life under the Taliban in Kabul, when clean-shaven men were tossed into jail until their beard was the length of a clenched fist. I decided to see how long it would take my beard to measure up and thus far it’s taken a week to get to about half a little finger’s width. It’s now all itchy and scratchy and has bits of last night’s dinner stuck in it, despite Anya’s advice, so I might just risk the wrath of the ex-rulers of Afhganistan and shave it all off again before long.
Last night I wondered if it was tempting fate to leave the genoa and drifter poled out as they might be a pain if the wind came up suddenly, but really couldn’t be bothered so watched a film instead. Continuing in my alphabetical lucky dip I watched Alien vs Predator, which made an interesting contrast to the last one I saw, Abouna. This was a touching little film about two boys looking for their father who’d walked out of the family home with no warning. It was filmed entirely on location in Chad with a largely amateur cast and was most enjoyable indeed, so I wasn’t really expecting to like AvP. However I found the whizzy FX, stereotyped muscle-heads, writhing aliens and shimmering predators to be an excellent way to take my mind off the lack of wind, so retired to bed happily at midnight.
Sure enough the wind did start to pick up a little, and at 3am I decided to furl up the genoa. I really couldn’t be bothered to go all the way up to the foredeck in my pyjamas and nightcap to wrestle with two 15-foot poles and acres of flapping canvas so left the drifter up on its own.
By 6am it was clear that the increasing wind wasn’t going to let me rest, and I couldn’t really complain after moaning about the lack of it for so long, so I bit the bullet, donned my lifejacket and harness, and went up on deck. The first conundrum was that I only had the drifter set, and needed to get it down safely, then raise the main, mizzen and genoa. Normally one would motor into the wind to do this, but I didn’t want to start the engine just for that, so had a little think.
Luckily the answer lay in the ketch rig which so many people deride as being inefficient, but I’m growing to like it more by the day. First I raised the mizzen, which could be done quite happily while reaching beam on to the wind. Once up and sheeted in it brought the bow up into the wind, eventually heaving-to almost head to wind. I could now go up on the foredeck and de-rig the two poles, then lower the drifter. It was by now gusting around 15 knots and the large lightweight sail was determined to fly away, dragging me with it if at all possible, so I quickly stuffed it through the hatch into the forecabin and went aft again.
With Odyssey pretty much stationary and almost head to wind I could now raise the main, and put a reef in for good measure. I then let the sheets out and we bore away onto a fine reach so I could unfurl about four-fifths of the genoa. We suddenly accelerated and were off at a smart canter, with the log soon showing a steady 6 knots. Quite an improvement on the last couple of days average of 1.5!
The rumble of the prop shaft soon made itself known, and I realised that although Ray’s trick of stopping the engine in gear works below about 5 knots, above that speed the prop starts to rotate again. However I have now had an email from Jeff, the previous owner, pointing me in the direction of an enormous wrench which he kept for the very purpose of stopping the prop shaft. Sure enough it worked, and we picked up another knot or so, charging along at 7+ knots and even breaking 8 a few times. The most I’ve seen so far today is 8.6 which is excellent, particularly as we’ve got the extra knot or so of the Gulf Stream in our favour.
So all is well again, and the wind generator is spinning away happily pumping lots of juicy Amps into those hungry batteries. It almost minced one of those squeaky-bone birds earlier as it came perilously close to the whirling 4-foot blades, but luckily it swerved away at the last second. I really didn’t fancy being showered with seagull puree, thank you!
The wind has eased a little now but is still a healthy F4 from the south which is pretty much perfect. The sea’s a little choppy but Odyssey just surges through the swells leaving a frothing wake behind us. Monty is now in control again and I’m very happy indeed just lying here in my green velvet smoking jacket watching the water race by.
Actually before I forget there are a couple of other little milestones to mention: first of all we passed the 1,000 mile mark earlier today, so I’m now about one quarter of the way to France. We also just crossed our first time-zone so are now 4 hours behind GMT instead of 5.
Finally, I was surprised and delighted yesterday when my afternoon sun sight aligned perfectly with my morning calculations to give my first ever running fix with the sextant, and it was just 4 miles from where the satellite navigation system thinks we are. OK, so it took an hour of working things out and drawing vectors and angles and things, but it’s a very satisfying feeling doing it the old-fashioned way. Tonight I intend to celebrate with my first glass of red wine of the trip! After all, I might as well get cracking on my stock as I’ll be able to replenish it with the real stuff soon 🙂