21.12.2007
Christmas invites itself aboard Temenos II
After a lively night with the wind gusting up to 40 knots, the transition hasn’t
been particularly flexible for Michèle and Dominique, who have been labouring
since this morning in light winds below 15 knots. The passage of the Australian
safety gateway is forcing the duo to continue on this tack with the wind right
on the tail and preventing them from plunging southwards any earlier in search
of fresh breeze.
Michèle explained “without this gateway, we’d have headed South in search of
wind. We’re making 9, 10 knots, the boat being tossed about all over the place,
unable to punch forwards. We’ve got a few more hours at this pace, I hope we’ll
manage to get through the gateway without having to gybe again.”
Though it's fairly easy to imagine the stress generated by the strong wind last
night, Michèle didn’t convey this in her message of the day. The sailor opted
instead to humorously evoke the rather comical situations of life onboard after
over 40 days at sea:
"The wind ended up by kicking in again last night. We tried to be careful
despite the gusts at 35, 40 knots, but the attacking angle was favourable for
surfing, and short of being really very under canvassed, our steed found it
difficult not to go over on its ear at over 20 knots.
This morning we watched the barometer climb. This front which has taken it’s
time coming will finally pass over very quickly. Tonight, for the first time in
a very long time, we were able to make out the stars and the moon right on our
stern. Here in the South, contrary to the Northern hemisphere, the moon "doesn’t
lie", when it portrays a C it is 'croissante’ (waxing) and when it is
décroissante (waning) a D. How lovely it is to see it appearing again above our
hairy heads… you almost feel like running away when you catch sight of
yourself!! But with a good dose of humour and love everything goes alright and
anyway, short of calling God and walking on water, running away simply isn't
possible right now!
The wind is becoming favourable now and dropping off, the speed plunging. We’ve
still got over 60 miles to go on this tack, in order to be able to pass through
the gateway and be able to dive southwards again and avoid getting stuck in the
immense zone of high pressure, which is settling to the South of Australia. It's
a shame as we were really getting used to 12 degrees down below.
This morning I looked at the calendar to get an idea of the date, without it I'd
be incapable of doing that, and I saw that it's Christmas in 4 days. We’ll have
to celebrate that in the furious fifties with ice in our champagne flutes! The
files are promising us a fairly harsh front for 24th December, What more could
you wish for to celebrate Christmas?
Michèle aboard Temenos II"
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