POS: 22d 40'S, 20d 40'W
The 1AM-6AM watch this morning bore witness to an incredible sunrise. The inky black sea became was gradually crowned by layers of pinks, ambers & marine blues. A delightful finale to a rather terrible night. This is what happened:
Yesterday had been a day of rather tricky, frustrating sailing. The wind dropped badly & insisted on blowing in a direction that made it impossible to sail the way we wanted to. A little excitement happened when we spotted the vessel Perie Banou II on the horizon. We quickly made radio contact & they nonchalantly informed us that they were happily potting along, watching 1 or 2 movies a day & were currently having tea & biscuits!! This sport is rather strange at times. Another depressing hic-up was when the Destroyer (the main sheet) struck again & in one swift movement managed to whip our most valuable double handed winch handle overboard.
When night fell things weren't looking much better, despite Saths' effort by surprising us with Guava & custard pudding. I knew they had got a whole lot worse though when I awoke clinging to my bunk; the boat pitching & rolling frantically & Murray's voice yelling "Al! Quick on deck! We need to get the spinnaker down!". I followed him up into a torrential down pore & swirling winds, all cloaked in total darkness. By the light of the instruments I could make out the skipper swinging the wheel frantically this way & that as the wind chopped & changed at random; threatening to wrap the spinnaker around the forestay.
20 minutes later the spinnaker was down, Saths & Andre had returned to bed & three of us sat drenched on a glass still sea. There was no wind, no waves & without moon the starlight allowed us to just make out the
black, puffy cloud ahead; taking his rain & crazy winds with him. Eventually the wind came back to us, blowing slowly from the SW, turning S & finally again to it's usual SE. Our frustration at a slow days' sailing
had us toying with launching the spinnaker again but when another cloud burst struck an hour later we deeply appreciated the fact that we hadn't. It is impossible (I think!) to control a yacht when the wind has the
directional commitment of a 5 year old in a candy shop & the complete darkness is incredibly unnerving & disorientating, even making one sea sick. Eventually we crawled to dawn with our Genoa up & the comfort of sunrise brought with it a consistent 14 knot south easter. So begins day 14 of the Cape to Rio yacht race.
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