ParaHandy
Well-Known Member
Stingo's keeping well away from Cape Verde islands .....
Mojomo #4 Monday 3rd December
Lighter winds but still doing the regulation 8 knots or more. Sunny today much nicer than overcast yesterday.
Position at 10 am GMT = 23deg53.274N 27deg31.171W
Mojomo recognises the huge importance of taking care of the environment {whining pleading voice, furrowed eyebrows}. Pat in particular has taken a stance against simply collecting bags of refuse to dump on the ever-increasingly transat-rubbish-strewn island of St Lucia, and wanted us all to adopt a better and more considered approach. So now, all waste is handed over to Keith for recycling. It's then carefully sorted so that the organic matter goes over the port side, bottles and metal between the hulls, and non-bio-degradable stuff over the starboard side. Much better. Stingo is also doing his environment-aware bit - protecting the wildlife of the N Atlantic by not catching any fish.
We haven't bothered with any weather forecasts. Argh! But this route is pretty settled, really, and no forecast would ever tell us of local squalls where the wind gusts up towards 28knots. Also, I reckon that looking at big-area forecasts just puts the sh its up people, makes them more apprehensive. I mean , ok, on the eastbound route we'd need them, but this way, it's just downwind all the way. Zefender has texted me an excellent forecast which said "it looks E or ENE, I'd just head for st Lucia" which is about all the wx we need. Thanks zeffie. It's chucked it down twice, both times on Stingo's watch, hee hee.
The other thing that people manage to get themselves in a right state about on long distance cruising is Pirates. Argh (again)!! The number of pirate attacks is increasing year on year. Oh yes it is - I went to that boring seminar at a boat show where they nattered on about it and then tried to flog us some silly alarm thingy gizmo afterwards.
Conventional wisdom on the subject is that an open friendly waving hand is the best approach, and to lob the pirates a carton of cigarettes. We have our emergency carton of cigarettes always ready in the cockpit, and I showed Stingo how to batter the pirates with the cigs if they board us.
However, if there's a real worry about lawless pirates - and there definitely is - then one approach is surely to bring the whole piracy industry into the 21st century and introduce sensible regulations, hm? Instead of lawless pirates how about *OFFICIAL* Pirates, eh? Of course.
So! I have found a copy of Microsoft Publisher, fired up the fifty quid printer and printed a nice banner across 8 x A4 pieces of paper saying "Official Pirates" (in Papyrus font about 450 point) to stick in the windows on both sides. We've also got a massive skull + crossbones ensign 1m x 1.5 m all ready furled at the bottom of the mast, and decent water pistols. We've even cut up some transparent blue shampoo bottles to stick over our armband strobe lights to make them flashing blue instead of white. So, now we're all official, and we can now sneak up on any well-prepared ARC tailender and tellem to hand over the cigs, just like the bloke in the seminar toldem to do. Bensons or Silk Cut would be best, please, or a few cigars to go with the mohitos.
Mojomo #4 Monday 3rd December
Lighter winds but still doing the regulation 8 knots or more. Sunny today much nicer than overcast yesterday.
Position at 10 am GMT = 23deg53.274N 27deg31.171W
Mojomo recognises the huge importance of taking care of the environment {whining pleading voice, furrowed eyebrows}. Pat in particular has taken a stance against simply collecting bags of refuse to dump on the ever-increasingly transat-rubbish-strewn island of St Lucia, and wanted us all to adopt a better and more considered approach. So now, all waste is handed over to Keith for recycling. It's then carefully sorted so that the organic matter goes over the port side, bottles and metal between the hulls, and non-bio-degradable stuff over the starboard side. Much better. Stingo is also doing his environment-aware bit - protecting the wildlife of the N Atlantic by not catching any fish.
We haven't bothered with any weather forecasts. Argh! But this route is pretty settled, really, and no forecast would ever tell us of local squalls where the wind gusts up towards 28knots. Also, I reckon that looking at big-area forecasts just puts the sh its up people, makes them more apprehensive. I mean , ok, on the eastbound route we'd need them, but this way, it's just downwind all the way. Zefender has texted me an excellent forecast which said "it looks E or ENE, I'd just head for st Lucia" which is about all the wx we need. Thanks zeffie. It's chucked it down twice, both times on Stingo's watch, hee hee.
The other thing that people manage to get themselves in a right state about on long distance cruising is Pirates. Argh (again)!! The number of pirate attacks is increasing year on year. Oh yes it is - I went to that boring seminar at a boat show where they nattered on about it and then tried to flog us some silly alarm thingy gizmo afterwards.
Conventional wisdom on the subject is that an open friendly waving hand is the best approach, and to lob the pirates a carton of cigarettes. We have our emergency carton of cigarettes always ready in the cockpit, and I showed Stingo how to batter the pirates with the cigs if they board us.
However, if there's a real worry about lawless pirates - and there definitely is - then one approach is surely to bring the whole piracy industry into the 21st century and introduce sensible regulations, hm? Instead of lawless pirates how about *OFFICIAL* Pirates, eh? Of course.
So! I have found a copy of Microsoft Publisher, fired up the fifty quid printer and printed a nice banner across 8 x A4 pieces of paper saying "Official Pirates" (in Papyrus font about 450 point) to stick in the windows on both sides. We've also got a massive skull + crossbones ensign 1m x 1.5 m all ready furled at the bottom of the mast, and decent water pistols. We've even cut up some transparent blue shampoo bottles to stick over our armband strobe lights to make them flashing blue instead of white. So, now we're all official, and we can now sneak up on any well-prepared ARC tailender and tellem to hand over the cigs, just like the bloke in the seminar toldem to do. Bensons or Silk Cut would be best, please, or a few cigars to go with the mohitos.