Monday, January 26, 2015

Bay of Bengal (Are We Having Fun Yet?)

We made some excellent time yesterday, covering 182 nautical miles in a 24-hour period, almost a new record for Rutea. Now we have slightly more than 400nm to go to our destination and the conditions remain very good. The whitecaps spangle the sapphire-blue sea in the bright sunlight.

Our watch schedule last night was normal with no incidents to log until Mark came on watch at 0300 and a line of squalls formed right in our path. None of them were huge and (thankfully) none of them had any lightning. From my cabin, I could tell that the wind was rising so I came up on deck to offer Mark my support. Once the wind hit 25 knots, we decided to reef the genoa and as the squall increased, we furled it altogether, just leaving the staysail and the main with a single reef up. Rain poured down - which was a good thing because after four days at sea, Rutea needed a good fresh water bath. After the squall passed we unfurled the genoa and I was just about to go back to my bunk when I noticed another squall forming on the radar. This one proved just as strong as the previous one and once again we furled the genoa altogether until the squall passed. I was able to get a few minutes more sleep until it was my watch and since we've made so much westing in the last four days, the sunrise wasn't going to happen until nearly 0700, local time, as I haven't set our clocks back. While still screaming along at 8 knots, Rutea was rolled badly by a breaking whitecap and our pantry door latch couldn't hold back all the wine, milk, eggs and onions so it all spilled on the main saloon's sole. One bottle of Ruthie's Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio broke, making the cabin smell like a winery, half-a-dozen eggs broke and one of the pantry's bins had hit our newly-varnish table, taking out a good-sized bite of varnish.

Once I had the big chunks cleaned up, it was way past time for coffee. I ground the Thai beans, boiled water and as I was waiting for the water to cool slightly, I stuck my head out the hatch to give a quick 360°. Bad decision. While I was looking around, Rutea took another bad roll and spilled all the coffee grounds. A long stream of bad words came from somewhere. I saved most of the grounds in a large plastic tumbler and as I was dumping them back into the coffee cone, I smacked the bottom of the tumbler, sending it crashing into the coffee cone and spilling all the grounds once again.

Ruthie did most of the clean up when she got up. My mood is now quite good and Rutea continues to make good time. All is well on board.
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At 1/27/2015 3:10 AM (utc) Rutea's position was 07°30.30'N 087°57.00'E

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