CHRISTMAS ON SAILORS RUN
A Picture online view imaging Sailors Run going by the Huge Ice Berg they saw
This Iceberg I found online imaging this is what jeff saw,we will see the real thing when he gets back
SAILORS RUN & JEFF AT LAT 50’S-LONG 40’W
WHERE RED DOT IS
THE REST OF THE STORY:
DAY 55 “Christmas Eve”
24hr.Run=144 NM.
Position: Latitude 53*06’S. Longitude 46*15’W
Weather: Wind 12-40kts.
Seas 6-10ft
Cabin Temp=44*-51*.
Bar=984 mb.
I was looking forward to a great Christmas Eve as the winds were filling in and starting to build up the seas, meaning we could once again cover some miles towards home.
It was about noon and I was inspecting the Genoa, and was disappointed to see three tears starting to open up. I pulled the Genoa down off the furler, it’snot an easy job while running before about 17 kts of wind, and one of the tears went from about 3-inches to 18-inches.
Once again I find myself sliding around tethered off on the for deck sewing on patches. Fortunately two of the small tears I was able to cover with one patch. My contact cement was no longer a liquid so I had to resort to silicon to hold the patches in place on both sides while I stitched them together.
After about 1hr 30 minutes I struggled to get the sail back up on the furler and trimmed in. It was when I was admiring my not so beautiful patches that I discovered 3 more tear’s. Once again I pull the sail off the furler and do the patching drill, fortunately the wind had died down a little this time and it was much easier to get the sail back up and flying.
Now I have to tell you the thumb on my right hand is killing me, as I have been doing so much hand sewing that it bleeds each time I do it as the finger nail is cutting into my thumb, and it doesn’t get a chance to heal up, it seems I cannot do anything without using it or jamming it in to something. By the time I got everything cleaned up and put away I was pretty” knocked out”, an celebrating would have to come on Christmas morning.
DAY 56 “MERRY CHRISTMAS WITH ICEBERG IN SITE!”
24hr.Run:157 NM.
Position: 51*36’S Longitude 42*50’W.
Weather: Wind: W at 25-40kts.
Seas: 12-18ft.
Cabin Temp: 44*51*
Bar:992mb
Christmas morning started out like a fire drill, when the winds built to 40 kts and I was anxious to get out there and roll in the little bit of Genoa that I had out and drop the Mizzen sail down altogether trying to get the boat back under control, as it was ripping across the ocean, careened way over on her port side.
At last we were back sailing in a civilized manner, even in the powerful winds that had now backed down to about 30-kts.
Once below I started the coffee percolating, and getting things ready for a nice breakfast, it was then that we were slammed by a rogue wave on the side and I watched as the coffee pot flew across the galley spilling water and grounds everywhere, “Merry Christmas”.
Ohhh ! Here we go again, on the second pot it was watched it much more closely, and like the last one it was again bungee corded down.
It was time to go outside and get the spot locator device, that was out in the bracket on the stainless steel rail, out in the cockpit. I pushed open the double companion way doors and felt I had entered the world of “Ozz” as right before my eyes was a HUGE ICEBERG over a mile long and some 800ft high.
My knees shook as I gazed in disbelief as we were already past it and could have just as easily T-boned the thing. It appeared to be about a mile away. But once I got the radar up and going after a bunch of filming and pictures it was actually 4 miles away, but its enormous size made it seem much closer.
The iceberg was very visible on the radar even at 16 miles I was still able to see it. (It was with the radar that I could determine its size.) Our track showed that we had come within two miles of it when we passed. “We had truly lucked out”.
I thought I was north of the Icebergs as the ones I have the locations on, are all 200 miles to the south of me, from now on the radar stays on 24/7.
I can imagine had we slammed into that IceBerg at 7-knots we probably would have not only peeled some paint off the bowsprit, but it is possible we could have caused the iceberg to emit some “CO2” into the atmosphere, as I’m also sure there would have been a huge release of “Methane Gas” from the Sailors Run.
Day-57
24hr.Run: 132NM.
Position: Latitude 50*22’S Longitude 40*16’W
Weather: Wind: WNW-SSW-10-20kts.
Seas: 6-8ft.
Cabin Temp: 44*-51*.
Bar: 992mb
The winds have dropped way down and we are sailing along very comfortably towards our destination, under sometimes even sunny skies.
Heading for my other Cape- The Jefe
A Happy time Christmas Day on Dee Boat