Dear Family and Friends
This is a birthday boat - and all is well! We heard today that Shin's birthday was on Monday 20 Jan. So we are developing a punishment to be taken out on him (in Rio) for hiding this important day. Tomorrow Thursday is Gareth's birthday - we were hoping to celebrate in Rio but this will have to be postponed briefly. He says he has no fear of Rio
I would like to describe the night time driving of this huge surfboard. Picture yourself on a freeway, in the fast lane in pitch dark, no headlights, no streetlights and no lights on any oncoming cars. The road bends and curves every now and then and all you have to give you any sense of the road is a readout in your car which says you must travel in a certain direction (depicted as a number from 0 to 360). Sounds easy?
Through my secret wormhole back to Johburg I can hear you sniggering and saying this guy has been out at sea too long - or maybe Shin has included some special happy juice into the latest meal. Not really. We are trying to race this 14 ton beast with a 15- 20 knot (35-45kph) wind apparently coming directly at my right shoulder (not much is real in sailing - apparent is good enough). Of course we are making full use of Sir Spinnaker - all handsome and powerful - and extremely full of ....trouble. Now if I steer a little to the left, I move into a slower lane - not too much of a problem. However if I steer a little too much to the right, BIG problem - I drive directly into unknown, unseen, oncoming traffic. The wind whips me around rapidly into a broach two step (ie the sail takes a big dip into the water - scary stuff).
So just stay in the slow lane I hear you say. Skipper Gerrie will have none of this. Speed, speed, speed is the word x3 (similar to sheet, sheet, sheet).To make matters worse, there are no signs warning of a bend in the road (increase or movement in the wind), pitch black waves and swells knock you from side to side and it is sometimes (for us Newbies) impossible to make out anything at all to aim at - so pitch dark is the night. Lets also add to the equation that this little sucker does not respond to steering with any sense of real urgency. It decides to complete whatever wave action, wind movement or any other 14 ton momentum movement it had already embarked upon before it responds to your urgent plea to change direction. So we look at this little dial with numbers telling us wind angles, wind speed, boat direction and boat speed - and try our best to avoid the unseen upcoming traffic - in a vast, empty Royal Blue ocean.
We limit Newbie driving spells at night to 30 min each every two hours - thank goodness for everyone!
Going to get dressed now for Shin's party - we shall try to get a pic on Facebook.
Lots of love and best wishes to all our family and friends
Regards
Mike on behalf of Team Rocket/Stop Rhino Poaching
No comments:
Post a Comment