Wednesday 18th January 2017
It was Max’s birthday today and so we set out to give him a nice treat by trying to catch a decent fish for dinner, our fresh provisions having finally run out save for one last packet of bacon for a Hawaiian pizza with the tinned pineapple. Our only options were now tinned ham or bully beef with the latter very low down our list preferences, especially among those who had done the Cederberg adventure at scouts where bully beef seemed to play a major role in their daily rations. We changed all our lures yet again to see if we could find something the fish in this part of the Atlantic would find enticing.
Nick spent a good amount of time stitching up the white spinnaker’s foot tape which had frayed with the constant rubbing on the pulpit to the extent that the chord in the tape was now hanging out and snagging on the nav lights bracket from time to time. We had been letting out the spinnaker sheet from time to time when the wind dropped to keep the big bag off the pulpit but when the wind built to over 20 knots we found that we had to tighten up the sheet and guy again to make the boat more controllable as otherwise the spinnaker oscillated from side to side off the bow and rounded the boat up so that she twisted round, the spinnaker powering up dangerously, especially when the swell was hitting us from different angles. Having fixed the spinnaker, we flew it in decent 15 to 20 knot winds all morning but decided to drop it at lunchtime as the prevailing wind direction had backed from an easterly to a more northerly wind and we were having to sail further and further south off our desired track to keep the spinnaker flying properly. Having dropped right down to 23 degrees south as a strategy to quickly get some miles under our belt in following winds and seas the day before, we couldn’t afford the luxury of going any further south and risking having to sail up towards Rio with the wind on our nose, either sailing close-hauled, our slowest point of sail, or needing to tack to the finish which would cost u a lot of extra miles.
The wind was too strong to consider flying the assymetric gennaker which was only really suited to wind speeds in the low teens so we sailed on a broad reach on our white sails for the rest of the day, achieving very respectable average speeds of about six and a half knots.
The afternoon’s sailing was pretty much uneventful and our conversation drifted from wondering what newsworthy local and world events we had been blissfully unaware to how much of the boat’s gross weight could be attributed to us as her crew. We managed to come up with a figure of 2.16 tonnes that we considered was our contribution when we departed Cape Town and which we had calculated using the following inputs: Diesel 350kg, water 710kg, gas 25kg, ourselves at 640kg assuming 80kg per person, personal kit at 160 kg assuming 20kg per person and including fishing kit etc. and provisions of 275kg. Having only used enough diesel to get to the start in Cape Town we still had nearly all of it left and our we had managed not to lose many of our personal effects overboard so we still had most of these too, but virtually everything else had bene depleted by now, including ourselves with each one of us having lost at least 5kg on the trip. We were down to our last 3 containers of water and we had managed to chomp nearly all our provisions, keeping the location of a stash of Ultramel custard, biltong and droewors for the return voyage crew a secret from the crew. Being one of the return crew members, Ash had been privy to these extra provisions so that he could raise the alarm if he saw anyone indulging in them on the quiet. Deducting the amounts such as the diesel, some gas, personal effects and the secret stash that we (hoped) we still had with us as well as taking off a total 40kg for what we had cumulatively lost in body weight alone we now only contributed 852kg to the boat’s gross weight, a total reduction of over 1300kg with a bit more, such as the water and some provisions to go still. We had shed 17% of our gross tonnage of 7.5 tonnes, which Bolero with only 2 crew wouldn’t have been able to match.
Surely with such drastic weight shedding we had to be faster through the water. Maybe we did have a chance now of pipping Bolero to the finish after all, if not on handicap then at least on line honours.
It was while we were performing all sorts of likely scenarios based on these facts that one of the fishing reels came to life with a very telling high-pitched and welcoming whirring sound as a fish took one of the lures that had the fishermen among us springing into action on the stern. Not wanting to lose Max’s promised dinner treat we reeled it in very gingerly on as little drag as possible to prevent the fish tearing off the hook, as others had done when we were trundling along at a cracking 7-8 knots like we were now. Jarrod wasted no time in gaffing the nice big Wahoo we had caught and which we quickly brought on board to take the requisite photos and then fillet ready for supper. Deftly stripping the skin off the fish, which Jarrod maintained made the fillets far tastier, he then cut up enough nice big steaks fillets for two big meals for everyone so that we could put half the fish in the fridge for the following day. Nick lit the braai which took some doing in 20 knot winds but we had decided that come what weather we were going to have to have it cooked Cajun-style with the necessary spices over coals, which Nick then also did under Max’s supervision since Nick isn’t exactly renowned as an expert on preparing fish, not being a fish eater himself. Well not until this trip that was. The fish was delicious with everyone agreeing that it was likely the best they had ever had and now a fish eating convert, Nick went to far as to even having seconds. For the first time ever on the trip there was left over rice and beans as the fish received all the attention. Rory had been hiding the last remaining fruitcake to celebrate Max’s birthday with which we did with generous dollops of Ultramel custard and going really big for the occasion then topping it off with a tin of condensed milk to sweeten the deal further. The outstanding meal was then settled in our stomachs with a thimbleful of Max’s Granny’s famous lemon flavoured schnapps which went down exceedingly well, although the two who had just come on watch had to be abstemious on this last indulgence for obvious reasons. There was a lot of loud snoring to be heard on the boat later that night as all the crew slept exceedingly well.
