Hospital ship!
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Thu 7 Apr 2011 16:58
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Thursday 7th April 2231 Local Time 1631
UTC
06:41.91N 085:57.69E
Just after midnight last night the promised 7 or so
knots of wind filled in and I was onto it immediately. Being alone I got the
genoa up until one of the off watch were available. Donald was first up half an
hour later and we hoisted the spinaker behind the genoa to keep momentum up and
then furled away the genny and released the spinaker. We glided along at an
average of five knots but occasionally we peaked above seven. Quite
incredibly Rhiann Marie will make four knots in six knots of wind and in fact
two knots in four knots of wind. Before now we have never tried out this area of
her performance, but needs must.....
We sailed to a standstill at 1330 so we got twelve
hours done and about a third of our minimum required sailing time. During
the morning which was bright and sunny with a clear blue sky reflecting deep
into the azure Indian Ocean we put a line out.
Not long after a group of about a dozen dolphins
arrived on the scene. Murdo and I were on deck and we went forward to get
some entertainment and photos of the playful and probably quite tasty
mammals.....
We were startled by Trish who had appeared on
deck and was calling what I thought was "whale". We rushed back but it turned
out she was calling "reel". By this time there was only a few metres left on the
reel and because we can't afford to depower the boat and loose any of our
precious wind, I tensioned up the Penn and started reeling. I handed over
to Murdo after he got the harness on and he fought away with it for a while
before it leapt skyward and probably then broke one of the treble hooks that he
was on.
Trish then headed back below and i heard the scream
of pain coming from below. On the way down the companionway she did something to
her foot and was slumped in a heap in agony and almost sick from
nausea. We are not sure if she has broken a bone in her foot or torn a tendon or
what but her foot is swollen up and she is laid up with her foot bandaged
up. We brought the swelling down with ice initially but it is still
painful.
Like a true hero she still managed to hobble
to the galley and prepare the casserole for dinner and stuck it out through
happy hour to recieve her tonic. The tonic was heavily laced with gin and seemed
to help. She is in good care as Murdo is aboard to compensate for my
sensitivity deficiency.
Good grief! - nothing much happens for days
and all of a sudden it all happens at once! Lets hope its a sprain or something.
Rhiann Marie is rapidly becoming like a hospital ship with the geriatric wards
forward and the medical ward aft.
We need to find enough wind now for about another
150 miles of this passage. At the moment the sea is oily calm. The stars and sky
however are stunning and our old friend the moon has just reappeared again to
wax her way back to full splendour. The night sky is stunning and the
spectacular shooting stars may have to be our entertainment if we have to slop
around for a day or two.
All this stuff about no fuel - don't worry we are
on a very capable sailing yacht. People leave to sail round the world with no
engine so us having to find wind for a 250 miles or so doesn't phase me at
all. However it would be nice to know that wind will appear sometime in the near
future. Our fridge is down and we are starting to loose food. I hate waste.
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