Our first Gale

Day 7: Sailing from Newport to the Azores

I awoke this morning to the soft chimes of my alarm and the sound of our pots, pans, mugs and cutlery stampeding from one side of their cupboards to the other. It was 5:40 and time to get ready for my watch.

Reluctantly I left the warm of my duvet, wriggled out of my pyjamas, pulled on my leggings and fleece and crawled out of my bunk. Jasper was at the chart table writing in the logbook and checking the weather on the iPad. I gave him a squeeze good morning and then sidled crab style through the saloon to go to the heads and clean my teeth.

In the mirror I saw some tired eyes, that haven’t properly slept for a day or two and my bedraggled, salty hair that I haven’t been able to wash since we left land a week ago. My plaits are an attempt to keep things under control, I re do them every day or two but they are looking and feeling decidedly stale.

I shuffled back aft and pulled on the rest of my foul weather gear; bright yellow salopettes, rubber sea boots, a black puffy for warmth, and my waterproof jacket. Topped off with my buff and wooly hat.

I noticed the temperature felt considerably colder today, in the wake of the low pressure that’s passing over us. I peeked out the hatch and could see that the seas were big, grey and confused after yesterday and last nights gale.

Sat on deck, the wet teak and damp air slowly began to seep through my foulies. The occasional splash and spray landed on me as a wave breached the cockpit. Today is the kind of damp that gets under your skin even though it’s not rainy or especially rough.

I felt like I needed some encouragement and a brighter outlook on the day so I stuck Jack Johnson in my earphones. As I listened to him sing about banana pancakes I watched the birds soar over the swells, swooping low above the water and then pulling up to the sky again with a flash of their white bellies.

About half way through the album I was starting to feel a bit more cheery but also rather cold so I ventured down below to put the kettle on and treated myself to a couple chocolate chip cookies.

I made a cuppa for James too who had just woken up. We talked about Maru Noa’s new rolling motion in this swell, and he said he felt like a pebble being washed up and down the beach.

This has been our first gale onboard; it’s not been pleasant but objectively it hasn’t been that bad and it was not as rough as was forecast. We’ve been running downwind under a scrap of jib and all in all it hasn’t been too hectic.

Yesterday’s casualties included breaking our only coffee cafetière in the sink, the rip on our spray hood worsening, and 10 whisked eggs spilt on the floor, the deckhead, James bunk and Tino’s foul weather jacket.

Our deck leeks have also gotten worse these last few days and the two saloon bunks and sofa cushions are now quite moist. We re-sealed the most obvious spots like the hatches and obviously leaking portholes before we left, but without taking up all the deck hardware and rebedding it, which would be part of a more intense refit, for now we’re in triage and will just have to live with it. I cannot wait to spray some fresh water around and wash and dry everything out in the Azores sunshine. I’m regretting not buying more sets of bedding at Ikea…

We also had some trouble yesterday with the hydrovane, it broke in the late afternoon just as the light was fading. A small set screw seems to have sheered off or come loose inside the main mechanism. Jasper hand steered, whilst Tino climbed over the stern and sat his legs dangling over the transom trying to fix it. James and I tended the chicken casserole down below and sent up tools as and when needed. They managed a good lash up with some hose clamps and some string and got the vane working again for now, Jasper got on the phone to the hydrovane team to see if they could tell us in anymore detail how to fix it at sea and get some spares sent out to the Azores for us.

I’d say my spirit at the moment is another casualty, I haven’t slept well for a couple of days, have been a bit over emotional and I’m just tired of everything feeling so damp and salty. Not much to be done about that though expect chin up, try and have a giggle and know that the sun will come out again.

I’m grateful for my dry bunk, our excellent crew and the good food we have onboard.

As I approach the end of my watch more blue is starting to spread across the sky which spells good news for our solar panels that have been struggling to keep up with our power consumption under all this cloud.

I can hear more movement down below as everyone wakes up for the day and fixes themselves some breakfast.

I think I’ll make a warming pot of Dahl for lunch today with some shredded cabbage and mango chutney. For dinner I’m thinking about a hearty pot of beef stew. I’m not feeling the most useful or enthusiastic person on deck at the moment, but I’m glad that I can at least cook pretty well at sea. I’ll stick my favourite galley playlist on and have a little boogie whilst I chop and stir.

We’re almost half way now, having sailed 950 miles so far. We’re expecting another 7 days at sea. I’m hoping we might catch a fish before we reach land, we get some warmer weather back again and that our granola, milk and snack reserves hold out.

Will keep you updated! Thanks for following along x

Georgie

---

Support us on Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/moraocean

Track us: Garmin - Maru Noa