A few days ago I put a mark on the chart of where i expected to cross the continental shelf, the small pencil mark on the chart seemed an age away. Since then I have have had fights with spinnakers, lounged around in the sunshine, ate lots of freeze dried food and slept all of about an hour! I have now passed that mark and am now back in shallow water where here the depths are only around the 200 meters a few hours ago they were in excess of 3000! Not that that makes much difference to me, however I suppose at least the creatures beneath you in the shallows can be found in books, who knows what lies in the real deep- fishes with torches attached to their heads for a start, and thats just not normal!
last night I became aware I was in the company of of another boat in the race called Jenna B, when I saw her pop up 6 miles away on the AIS is was nice to know someone is near, I can imagine from the tracker at home it probably looks like we are close enough to chat, if not at least see each other. In reality though, with a 6 mile horizon at the top of a wave and a 60 meter one at the bottom, it has been a good few days since i saw another boat, in fact it was Jenna B that i saw last and i think that was the day after the start.
As she is in the class ahead and started 10 minutes earlier than me when she first caught up this morning I let her sail through me and just thought with a warm feeling inside, 'oh well, she is a faster boat and I am still beating her on handicap- let it go'. Of course lasted for about 10 minutes before i was again on deck working the sails and steering like a man possessed to keep up. After the 10th or 11th wave landed on my head i began to wish I hadn't bothered!
The conditions today are a world away from the tranquil sailing of yesterday, as if the wind gods have thought....'so you think you are finishing soon do you, well have some of this'.... In basics its not very pleasant! the angle I am sailing to make good my course for the Scilly isles is about 60 degrees to the wind (apparent) it is an odd angle to sail, the boat is stood on its ear and each wave that hits the bow rears up and lands in the cockpit. George seems not to mind nearly as much as me, so I am letting him steer until it brightens up! Something you just couldn't get away with 2 handed!
I have been trying to find the will power to go back on deck and steer and tweak sails and all those things racing sailors do, but I think I can probably think of a few more jobs to do down below first!
Maybe I'll try sleeping a bit, that seems like a plan, not had much lately....
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