46 41 00 N
15 41 00 W
0630 GMT
06.07.08
S/Y Flying Cloud
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mmph. another grey morning. fitting for the myth of English Weather - though the sunrise would be a nice perk, given that i'm already awake anyway. motorsailing. my watch relief slept in again and she's grumpy i let her sleep in the extra 8 minutes. really, i was going to wake her at 0615. but i was putting it off, as soon i leave the boat and i do relish watch. so, being selfish, i wanted to slightly prolong it. Also, i find waking anyone quite distasteful, so there's even less initiative to go and do it at 601 AM.
this leg is total race mode. actually more than the other deliveries. anything less than 7 knots, and we're to wake the skipper; most often this means that we'll motorsail though occasionally we'll perform a course adjustment or perhaps a sail change. but the plan is to rocketship right to Cowes on the Isle of Wight and then for Flying Cloud to depart for Sweden forthwith immediately. Matthew has a wedding he wants to attend in Poland.
This leg has less crew, so Matt's keeping a watch as well as doing the rest of ship captaining duties. not so much of a deal perhaps, though the return crossing seems less of a milk run than from canaries - antigiua. rougher seas generally, but it also seems less bouncy-bouncy. hard to say as i think i may be more acclimatized to the boat et cetera.
tom was up the mast yesterday and said the whale activity was most premium - he finally saw his first big fish. of course, it's a mammal and not a fish. but he's keen to see one since we left antigua. plenty of dolphins. there was a pod of about 20 of them that stormed the boat yesterday afternoon. very cool. though, they left right away as we're not terribly interesting. i gather a monohull makes a bigger bow wave and so forth so they hang out and play way more. we're just wee in comparison, though fast. we left many hours after 'minnie the moocher' an open concept racing boat, maybe an open 60'? very sexy. we did, however, pass it nearly like it was standing still yesterday evening. 2 days into the crossing. see ya later.
time for to make the manufacturing of Zs.
