Night of the flying fish
Visit Finland has entered Luzon Strait yesterday evening. We can see Edinburgh, New York and Derry-Londonderry in our AIS (Automatic Identification System).
Since we entered Luzon Strait, the sea state started building up as wind over current means plenty of chop. We had an exciting night in lively sea, wind blowing F7-8′s. We are currently carrying two reefs in our main sail, staysail and a storm jib as the wind was gusting up to 30 knots and the apparent wind reached 40′s.
Helming the boat with this sail configuration feels like driving a car on ice. The nose is very light, as the main sail is currently the primary means of powering the yacht. Driving has been like a slippery slope; the slightest movement alternates the course for 20 degrees.
Flying fish are attracted to us with such intensity that I have been chucking them overboard aplenty last night. I was helming when one landed to my feet, and it remained there flapping about for painfully long time. I could not bend to throw it back in the sea, nor couldn’t give it a gentle kick towards water as I had to keep both feet in angled surface and hands on the wheel. Since when has an omnivore felt bad about fish dying by her feet? Well, since last night.
Spinnaker sabotage?
Strangely enough we have managed to bust our medium weight spinnaker the other day. Wind was blowing abeam for some time, so we had our spinnaker tacked on the tack strop and flying it like large jib. The apparent wind was not more than 9 knots, but the spinnaker just suddenly split in L-shaped half near to the foot. Della, our media crew was just interviewing Oli about our kit, shooting footage with spinnaker in the background:
Della: Your medium weight spinnaker looks very pristine compared to other yachts, why is that? Oli: We take good care of our gear. Spinnaker: *SPLIT*
Since Della’s arrival our spinnaker has split, backstay padeye failed, inverter hasn’t been working, diesel is leaking from the tanks to the bilges, water maker makes water very slowly. Could there be some stealthy sabotage going on for better TV? Della denies, the crew suspects.
Up north
In few days we should reach south of Taiwan. Hopefully by then the sea sick crew will be alive again, as at the moment about 30% of the crew has fallen to the charms of the green sea monster. I find sea swell just interesting change from the normal slogging, some rollercoaster action gives some interest to the sailing in these latitudes!
Towards Hashia Channel at 21 11′.124N 121 08′.491E
