Robert’s “message in a bottle”.
Logbook of Tinkerbelle – Part 9
Monday, July 26
At daybreak the wind, still southeast, picked up in force and became almost too strong for comfort. May have to reef the mainsail. Hope the wind continues from southwest, but not too strong. Barometer is holding at 30.8.
I’m going to take a shot of the sun and then continue toward England.
Wind continued all day from southwest, but about 2 p.m. ship time grew too strong to continue and so we had to heave to.
Stayed hove to until next morning.
Tuesday, July 27
Had expected the southeast wind to keep us drifting more or less on course all night but awoke to find the wind had gone back to northeast during the night. It was hard enough fighting the current without having to fight the wind, too.
The day began cold, cloudy and miserable. I’m afraid I was quite depressed. It got very foggy later on. I forced myself to pull in the sea anchor and get going.
And then, about 9 or 10 a.m., ship time, a remarkable thing happened. All the fog and clouds disappeared. And Tink and I had a day of restful, easy sailing under a blue sky and in a blue ocean.
Took the opportunity to dry clothes and towels. My spirits rose again to normal and above.
A ship passed to port, going southeast, but it didn’t pay any attention to us. A couple of dolphin visited us too. They took one turn around Tink and then were off.
Evening sun shot put me past W24 and nearing N47. I’m going to continue all night again.
Dolphins visited me twice during the night. The second time they cavorted around Tink for quite a while, for them. Boy! They sure are fast!
Wednesday, July 28
Just after sunrise it started blowing pretty hard so I hove to for breakfast. Barometer is down a bit.
It was pretty clear last night. Could see the stars most of the time. But today it’s foggy and cloudy again. Well, yesterday was good enough to see me through a bad day today.
Have seen a couple of ships.
I’ll get going again in a little while. Looks like I’ll get down of W20 by the end of the month.
This has been quite a day. Started sailing with just the jib because the following waves were pretty big and the wind gets strong. But I didn’t get much speed with just the jib, so I decided to add the reefed mainsail. That was a mistake under the conditions. I started surfing down the forward slopes of the bigger waves. And then, while doing this, I broached to on one wave and got knocked overboard for the sixth (I think) time this voyage.
That wasn’t so bad. I climbed back on board very quickly. But when I went over I was holding the tiller and the “axle” part of the rudder fixture was badly bent. Luckily I had brought a spare and I put that on without loss of too much time. The wind let up a little later on and I was able to sail with the mainsail up in safety.
I was breezing along between W23 and W22 in late afternoon and happened to look back and there was a big freighter hot on my heels. It was the Bischofstar of Bremen. I waved as it passed and got a lot of waves back. And someone on it inquired if I was all right. I assured him I was, although I don’t know if he heard me.
I’ve just finished putting on relatively dry clothes and eating my supper. Now I’ll sail a little bit farther and then turn in.
Thursday, July 29
Had a very good sleep last night. It’s windy, as usual, though the sun came out just before sunset yesterday. But the wind is fine, from the southwest, and not too strong. Only thing that worries me is that the barometer is down a tenth of a point. Hope it doesn’t mean a worsening of the weather.
The weather held up well until evening. We did some good, comfortable sailing. It was cloudy, but not foggy. And the wind was about right until late in the day.
A ship going southwest passed to starboard. A little later I looked back and there was the ship steaming toward me. When it spotted me it turned around and came back to see if I was OK. The ship was the Vardal of (I think) Nausebund.. I’d like to write to that captain and thank him for taking the time to see if I needed help.
I stopped for the day a little early hoping to get a sun shot to see how far I’d come, but the sun stayed behind the clouds. Hope it’s out in the morning.
It blew pretty hard in late afternoon so I was glad to put out the sea anchor and get into the shelter of the cabin. Hope tomorrow’s a good sailing day. I’d like to get almost all the way to W20. If the sailing is good I may go on most of the night.
I keep my watch set to Eastern Standard Time and the clock set to Greenwich Mean Time. I like having the Eastern Standard Time because I can visualize what’s going on at home. Now to bed.
Friday, July 30
I’ve been at sea almost two months. That’s a long time. I’m ready to go ashore any time. Well, on to England. Hope to get there in about 16 days.
This was the roughest day of sailing so far. They say the southeast corner of England, or rather the sea off that corner, is the stormiest of any around England. I seem to be getting into that stormy ocean and just hope the weather settles down for me and Tink.
I sailed all day with jib alone. The evening sun shot showed distressingly little progress. Hope I can do better tomorrow.
Waves dashing aboard filled up the cockpit four times during the day. Now I must get my sleep.
Saturday, July 31
(passed 20ºW)
Seems like every time my morale sags sharply and I begin to feel I’ve “had it” a good day comes along to put me on my feet again. Today was such a day. The wind was just right, the sky was visible and blue with fluffy clouds drifting across it.
We had a marvelous sail, passing W20, as I had wanted to do by the end of July, and moving on toward W19.
As night fell a ship passed to starboard going southwest.
Since conditions were so good I decided to take full advantage of them and continue through the night. We sailed on, but about 1 a.m. ship time a storm began, with lightening which always scares me, so I buttoned up Tinkerbelle, got out of the weather and got some sleep.
When I awoke at about 5:30 a.m. ship time it was really raging outside. Huge waves. I think this the worst we’ve been through, but Tink seems to be riding through it OK.
I don’t think we can sail until this dies down, however. Fortunately we’re being blown east.
Sunday, Aug. 1
I’ve put in two months at sea and here it is August. I hope to get to Falmouth by the 15th, but I’ll have to have better weather. It’s still blowing hard with big waves. The barometer has dropped from 30.5 to 30.3. I hope that doesn’t mean we’re in for even worse weather.
I’ve been snug enough in Tink’s cabin, but it’s nerve-wracking to have to sit when I want so much to be moving and end this long voyage. And the big waves that slap Tink every now and then don’t add to my peace of mind. If Tink should be bowled over I’d be in a pretty difficult spot.
I suppose I’ll have to stay here all night, but I do hope conditions are OK in the morning.
I’ve had a good breakfast and made myself some hot chocolate in mid afternoon. I’ll have a good supper, too. How I wish the weather would behave.
A couple of sun shots during the day show that I’m about 10 miles west of W19 at about N48º30′. Since we’re drifting east or southeast, we may cross W19 in the night.
The dampness is terrible. I’ve discovered my exposure meter is so wet it won’t work. I’ll have to try to repair it.
Released note in bottle.
