Welcome to the Maunie of Ardwall blog

This is the blog of Maunie of Ardwall. After a six-year adventure sailing from Dartmouth to Australia, we are now back in Britain.

Sunday 19 May 2013

Day 9 - the first Pacific fish!

Our position as at 18.00 GMT, Sunday 19th May:
05 degrees 59 minutes south, 110 degrees 09 minutes west
Distance run in last 24 hours: 168 n
 
We're very pleased that the very lumpy conditions of yesterday morning have subsided somewhat and so we on longer feel as though we are in a washing machine. We still get the odd rogue wave but progress is a lot easier at the moment. It sounds as though other boats are experiencing interesting sailing, though; on this morning's SSB net a German yacht called Hestia about 300 miles behind us describedhow they were hit with a huge wind and wave combination last night which spun the boat through 180 degrees and seems to have destroyed their autopilot. The thought of hand-steering for 2,000 miles doesn't bear thinking about so hopefully they'll find a fix at sea.
Peter and Heidi remain is view and, occasionally, the slightly random nature of our wind vanes sees the boats crossing wakes - last night Stormvogel passed about 50m behind us so we were beginning to get worried about a collision! Peter has apparently posted a good photo of us in the waves on www.wiedekamm.com
We were delighted to catch our first fish yesterday afternoon – a lovely 2lb Mahi Mahi which Graham cooked in white wine, butter, garlic and herbs, accompanied by roasted Galapagos organic potatoes and Carrots and stir-fried green beans with soy sauce. Delicious and Dianne was very relieved that the alternative tin of 'Spam with Garlic' (yes they do upmarket Spam now) was left in the locker!
 
Though it's good to chat with strangers on other yachts we are missing your news so do please drop us an email (comments on the blog can only be read when we arrive) at maunie (at) mailsail (dot) com. We have been sending quite a few emails to individual friends recently but not hearing back from some so either a. You don't want to talk to us or b. our emails our getting lost in spam (with or without garlic) filters so please would you check your junk folders just in case. Graham's concerned that Yeo Valley's work filters are blocking these emails so if you read this at YV please could you check and, if necessary, have a word with those nice chaps in ISD?
 
Anyway, better get back to the sailing – the wind seems to have shifted and we are now on a course for not the Marquesas.
 
 
 

No comments:

Post a Comment