Day 9
Gins.pt
Tue 1 Dec 2009 18:58
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Another night without any ship in sight, just the
endless
ocean with 2-4 m waves with white crests rolling
from aft
and under the yacht - in the silvery light of the
full moon.The wind from broad reach (nearly from behind) with the
force 5 - 6 Bf stretching the full main sail and reffed genua,
pushing GIN'S to follow the waves.
Autopilot took over the steering
keeping the angle to the wind constant so no
adjustments of sails are necessay unless there would be s significant wind
shift. Then corrections are done with a button on the steering console or with
the remote control (like changing the TV program). If then one has to
adjust the sail the button for the winch is pressed to shorten the sheets. Or
one simply sets a new waypoint one the chart plotter and asks autopilot to
follow it. This is called button sailing and is very convenient
for retired managers, who have nobody left to
command.
However, there is some intellectual work to be
done. Weather reports need to be studied daily, both short term
ones (24, 48 hours) and the longer term one (5
days)
Another task is energy management. The crew
of 5 "spoiled
managers" with 2 cooks who compete in creating even
fancier menus and where just mentioning something like
spagetti meal earns a destroying look, is energy
consuming.
Thanks God GIN'S was equiped with a small power
plant (a
6kW diesel one ) which is in operation for 5
to 6 hours a day to enable cooking, bread baking, fresh water making, 2 fridges,
lights inside and navigational lights, electric,
toilets, and the navigational instruments,
including the radar. As there are no ships around us we use radar at night
to detect and observe the movement of squall
clouds. Management of electricity means that we have to monitor which
users may
be connected to the power plant at a given point of
time.
Today's menu : breakfast - raw fish with
lemon, soya and wasabe sauces, butter&honey with fresh baguettes, green tea
or Nespresso coffee..
Lunch : fish soup, filets of mahmahi fried on
butter, rice with mushrooms and avocado slices and oranges as
dessert.
Looking forward to pass the 38 degrees West which
means that we have crossed half of the Atlantic ocean in 8.5 days.
We put in function the new bread baking appliance.
You throw in the flour mixture, add water and tell it that you expect a wake up
smell of freshly baked bread at 7:30 am.
Technology working for you...
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