Sailing in the Rain

Sailing in the Rain

I felt a bit like Gene Kelly this morning, though far less nattily attired, as I danced around in the rain going nowhere. For the first time in my eight Gulf Stream crossings the wind died. It didn’t die so much as just go really light and skittish, the result I’m guessing of our approach to a frontal boundary. This happened about two in the morning and I went on deck to see the Windex at the top of the mast doing some lazy 360 degree revolutions. There’s not much sailing you can do when that happens but by dawn the wind had found a modicum of directional stability. It was also raining, one of those steady soakers, but a light wind is better than no wind at all, so it was don the foulies and trim the boat for whatever speed is possible.

I’ve been trying hard to get this show on the road for a while now, well since Plymouth now that I think about it. However, new reasons have emerged to make haste; I’ve consumed my last piece of fruitcake for breakfast this morning, I’ve managed to avoid the fuss that would have accompanied a very quick finish and, last but not least, Barbara has sent me an email telling me that the boys and girls are bringing their boats in now and playtime is over. Of course she didn’t phrase it quite like that, but they are and it is. However, as Inspector Renoir might have said ‘they’re all excellent reasons, but you still need an Exit Visa’.

My exit had been going passably well recently, decent progress, though still disappointingly slow. When I think back on the past week it has been eat, sleep, sail, though the days have been very different. Wednesday was a full on gale so it was basically hunker down and work the boat as necessary. Thursday followed with one of the most pleasant days of sailing I can remember. Not particularly fast, but smooth as the seas calmed down, the reefs came out and we settled on our course. Friday I was becalmed or barely moving for a large part of the day, which is frustrating at any time but more so in a race, but it quickly passed and Saturday was another beautiful day with reasonable progress and even some sun and warmth. Sunday, after taking some time out to break a few things on deck –see earlier blog - Rubicon and I got into a groove and started to stretch our legs and by yesterday we had entered the Gulf Stream. Now its fog, rain and light and fickle winds as we slowly make our way out of the stream. I’m more than a little ready to change this movie from ‘Singing in the Rain’ to ‘Chariots of Fire’, but in the meantime I’ll finish reading Bill Bryson’s ‘The Lost Continent’; whatever else is happening, that man can make you laugh.

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