O Y S TER NEWS
DAY 4
FIZZ OF COWES: “We have just passed the fi rst 500-mile marker and all is well. We had a bit of excitement last night trying to get Big Blue, our cruising chute, down in winds gusting 30 knots. T e snuff er was not playing ball, so the chute went for a swim but aſt er much grunting and groaning, we got it back on board eventually. Liz is educating us in healthy eating with lots of fresh vegetables, and is also running a Pilates class on the aſt erdeck each aſt ernoon, which everyone is required to attend! T e butter has just started to melt, so tomorrow we start heading west directly towards St Lucia.”
GWYLAN: “300 miles North of the Cape Verde Islands. We are now in the proper trade winds, which are blowing 15 – 20 knots from dead astern. T is makes for easy sailing in a beautiful boat like ‘Gwylan’, which is making a steady 8 knots, almost in the right direction. We saw our fi rst fl ying fi sh today jumping out of the waves just in front of the boat. T anks to our thorough preparations, all systems are working well so we have spent our time addressing low priority tasks:
• Nicky has found that the ice tray needs fi xing.
• Lara has taught Tom the Dutch card game Farmer’s Bridge. • Charles has fi nished another book. • Carsten has caught up on some sleep.
on a sailing boat. this evening with a showing of ‘T e Incredibles’.”
DAY 5
GWYLAN: “Light winds today but we have the spinnaker up and still maintaining 8 knots aſt er a couple of slow hours. Noon to noon we made very close to 200nm. We have also gained a bit on Sarabi, but it seems very close between the four Oyster 56s, with Windfl ower and A Lady also in the frame. We have now completed 800nm and are inside 2000nm of the fi nish. I gave the helm the instruction aſt er lunch today: steer 262 deg T for 2020nm!”
SPRAY: “First 1000 miles completed! Jan, our airline pilot who used to fl y jumbos, has been going crazy looking for something in the boat to invest his knowledge and expertise on. He has settled on challenging the Mastervolt charger/inverter aſt er deciding that the charge ratio is not good enough. Manuals and brochures are spread everywhere. T is will keep him and our skipper occupied for a week!”
KATHARSIS II: “We have been making daily runs of between 225 and 235 miles ever since the start and are now 7th place overall within the fl eet - really good! We have turned south to look for the trade winds but broached during spinnaker hoist, which threw all the gazpacho across the saloon. Roma, my sister is not happy!”
DAY 6
• James has had an amazing new experience, a hot shower • T e new fl at screen TV is going to be put through its paces
KATHARSIS II: “T is is the longest continuous sailing we have had under spinnaker. Gybing every 8hrs to check our guy for chafi ng. Passed Nix, an X-612 at 04.00 and now only the much bigger Swan 112 Highland Breeze is ahead of us in our class! ”
GWYLAN: “Noon to noon we ran 186nm in quite light winds. We put up the parasailor/spinnaker yesterday at 11.00 and it has not been down since except to repair a small tear, and intend to keep it up all night again. T e Parasailor does make her very balanced and we feel much more confi dent on hoisting/lowering it. At noon today we are 33rd in the overall fl eet and lead our class. But it isn’t a race of course! Who said there are no fi sh in the Atlantic? Maybe no tuna but today we caught four more Mahi Mahi; one got away and we threw two back; it was fi sh pie for dinner. Nicky says we are ahead of the menu plan as far as fi sh are concerned, so fi shing quotas may be imposed to make sure we eat the contents of the freezer.”
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