Life at an angle
The crew is making good progress towards Bermuda but it is a race against time to reach port before they feel the effects of a tropical storm building in the Caribbean and which is forecast to track north east across the Atlantic Ocean.
Bertram Christensen reports, “We are 275 nautical miles from the island and we must be there Tuesday evening or early Wednesday. If not, we are in for a storm that will put the crew to a test we have yet to experience. On board everyone is working hard to have the yacht sail as optimal as possible to make it in time before the storm cuts us off and forces us to go straight to Boston.
“Since yesterday we have had the engine on and off in an effort to keep an average of at least 7 knots, and for the whole night we have averaged between 8 and 9 knots. Unfortunately we are looking at less wind for the duration of Monday. Hopefully it will pick up Tuesday.”
The lively conditions Oceans of Hope has been experiencing increases the level of the physical demands placed on those on board – and means they have to find different ways of doing things.
Tine Perlt explains in her blog the effort it takes to move around the boat and perform the simplest of tasks – washing and drying the dishes after dinner.
”It soon turned out to be close to impossible, since every time I had washed a single cup and sat it down to dry, it instantly took off and flew right across the galley. New strategy – everything had to be washed, hand dried and put away one by one. At the same time there was an infernal noise in the galley because everything inside the cabinets was bouncing, sliding and flying around hitting the inside of the closed doors. What was not firmly in place on the tables was falling or flying around, often ending up somewhere under the crew mess table.
“All in all we have had nice winds on a close reach and the boat has constantly been heeling over at 35 degrees. For one thing that means when I need to open the watertight hatch to the forepeak and the toilets, it means one foot to the wall so that I can use my entire body weight to open it. And same thing when it needs to be shut again! Oh yeah, you learn a thing or two about how to manoeuvre around the boat, when the weather is like this.”