Days 6-9 by Damien
A Few days have passed on Rafiki with some significant mile stones being reached, we passed over 22 degrees of latitude into the tropics and are on the same longitude as the eastern most point of Brazil, one would be forgiven for thinking that the finishing line of Rodney bay was metaphorically in sight. The slightly more daunting truth is that we are in fact only just half way into the voyage, this being said the further we travel the easier it becomes. The sea sickness and teething troubles with the boat have now thankfully passed, we are settled into a routine of sorts, that is if you exclude the ever changing watch system the broken sleep and rotating duties. The days are split between sail changes, fishing, the Times crossword and lounging in the sun, the latter being the only one we can be considered pros at. The biggest change over the last few days is the inclusion of the spinnaker in our sail plan, I should say at this point for those of you that are not Yachtties, the spinnaker is a large lightweight sail that flies from the front of the boat in light winds. The skipper being the only one on the boat with experience in rigging spinnakers on yachts was the natural choice to go forward with Nacho and do all the hard work whilst we did what we do best. I'm not sure what we were expecting but the sudden unfurling of the huge white sail banging and flapping into place caught us all by surprise, the boat lurched forward at nearly 10kts and we were off again we were sure that our ETA at St Lucia would be slashed and rum cocktails on Sunday night was a certainty. Sadly this was not the case, we were soon to find out why the skipper was so nervous in hoisting the spinnaker in gusting conditions. The spinnaker gave us our top speed of the crossing, whilst surfing down a large Atlantic roller Rafiki hit 15.4kts which was exhilarating and thankfully short lived. The wind speed by this point was consistently in the 20's, Rafiki responded to the abuse by digging her nose into the bottom of a swell which lifted the rudder out of the water and in turn sent all 14 tonne's of boat and crew being pulled sideways gunwale deep through the water. Enough was enough and the sails were quickly changed.
Beyond this, life continues as normal, our freezer once packed full of pre-made curries is gradually being depleted and the netting once laden with fruit and hanging from the ceiling is almost bare. The fishing is yet to produce significant results, the tally currently stands at 4 losses 2 entangled wind vanes and one crewman's leg. There are however some highlights, the dolphins have made several appearances much to the delight of Holland and Nacho whilst flying fish, that are far more common than you would think are spotted several times a day. This being said I would gladly trade any more wildlife sightings in for a pint of ice cold in St Lucia. Its piping hot down here so this is me signing off, Damo of yacht Rafiki, OUT.
