03’20.2S 083’03.1W // course 056′ // speed 7,2kn
Walking forward, I watch my feet. The moonlight is bright, so there’s no need for a flashlight. When I pass the benches in the middle, a flying fish slides out from underneath – already dead… I throw it overboard.
The next step, I nearly slip as I correct my footing at the last minute before stepping onto a squid. It would not be the first time! But this one is still alive. I grab it, it slips from my fingers, I grab the hard pin in its back again and, in one fluid movement, throw it overboard. It’s not a nice feeling to hold them, but the smell is a lot better than the flying fish I saved an hour earlier. Bleh.
During the night, we do some deck rounds to see if we can save any more squid. And we think we are doing well, finding them all… But when we lower the mainsail in the morning to reef it down, I first have to remove the dried-out remains of at least three squid before I can ease out the peak halyard and the jiggers. They seem to be able to jump pretty high and fly pretty far once they launch themselves from the waves. Pity they land and can’t get away anymore.
We had to reef down the mainsail and mizzen as we needed to go a little more close-hauled and the wind was still between 15 to 18 knots. It just felt better. We reefed with just the 8–12 watch: Thor on the helm, Jasmijn, Sandrine and me on deck. We were done in 40 minutes with both sails. That was a good feeling. An even better feeling was pointing straight at our goal, Salinas, after that. Still doing 6.8 knots, we were heading more towards land now.
We stayed off the coastline for as long as possible, as we knew that the further north we got, the lighter the breeze would be. With a lighter breeze, going downwind takes away so much wind over the deck that sailing becomes hard and the ship is rocked with every wave. So now we had space to alter our course and keep more wind over deck… it’s just… the wind had not decreased just yet. But it soon did.
So at the 16:00 watch handover, we shook out the reef in the main and continued on. The wind went light for a little bit, shaking us and the sails violently. Not nice! But within three hours, the ocean had calmed down and now we are mostly gliding through. Starting with 5.5 knots, some trimming of the sails — 6.3 knots, shook out the reef in the mizzen — 7 knots… and now the wind has increased a little more to 14 knots and we are doing 7.7 knots. Pure magic.
Tooske just walked forward and I heard a muffled “ah no” — I think she stepped on a squid… luckily she has shoes on!
Our friend the booby has now invited a whole family, and so our deck is getting painted white little by little. Getting Tecla shipshape for harbour tomorrow will definitely include cleaning the deck of bird spatter, squid remains and fish scales.
All is well on board,
Jet
Picture of the day won by Philippe with a picture of Sandrine at the helm
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