Well I think I am going to change my sea berth for the rest of this passage, to the starboard saloon bunk because in these warm temperatures and with the boat's down wind rolling, the pilot berth is virtually untenable. After a bouncy four hours with no sleep and an incredibly sore back, I moved to the starboard bunk and eventually got off to sleep.
The boat's motion was quite lively due to a stronger wind pushing us along at 6-7 knots through bigger waves than hitherto and so that was the reason for the extra bouncing but even without that added discomfort, I'm now convinced the disadvantages of the pilot berth outweigh its advantage. The decision does reduce the choice of seating area below for Mick on his Watch, but he doesn't appear to use it much anyway, unlike me.
The wind had eased somewhat by the time I started my Watch at midnight local time (we belatedly put our watches back a further hour at the change of Watch and are now three hours behind GMT).
Despite the slacking of the wind, we're still averaging about 6 knots. The moon went to bed before I got up and we now have a clear(ish) starry sky overhead. Orion is high in the sky in front of us and The Plough is standing on its handle low in the sky off our starboard quarter. Polaris is hidden by low cloud to our north.
0220 local time and it's raining. Discounting a few scattered drops earlier in the passage, this is the first proper rain we've had and an indication perhaps that we are closing in on the Carribean (although we are not quite halfway yet). It turned out to be a short lived shower of only a few minutes!
A new phenomenon on this passage is the amount of seaweed we're encountering and occasionally plowing through. We just sailed through an enormous patch of the stuff, about the size of a full tennis court. It was so big that we slowed down noticeably and the waves were flattened by it. Scattered on its light copper coloured surface were the remains of a few dead fish and more disagreeably some bits of plastic rubbish. After going through this watery carpet, the build up of weed on the Hydrovane rudder was such that it really needed to be removed. I had tried doing so with the boat hook earlier in the day but the pressure caused by our speed through the water was too great to hold the boat hook vertically on the rudder. So this time we furled the genoa and let the jib flap freely, which slowed us down sufficiently to enable me to hook the weed off the rudder in clumps. I fished some of it up into the cockpit to examine it more closely.
A light copper colour with searated leaves, a bit like small bay leaves, but very densely packed together with numerous - what I took to be - seed pods, to form a thick blanket on the surface of the sea.
The most surprising thing about was it's texture. Not at all slimey or rubbery, but firm and dense, almost, dare I say it, as if made of plastic. It reminded me of the plastic imitation flowers, one comes across in 'cheap' gift shops and some the Christmas decorations we have at home!
Is it the famous sargasso sea wead? Given the prevailing winds, I assume it originates on the African coast, but it clearly doesn't need to be anchored to the sea bed to thrive. Perhaps it's the same weed that Sharon said had closed the beaches of Barbados's East coast a couple of years ago when she was on holiday there with her sisters? We may find out in a week or so!
Mick cooked Pizza for dinner. Didn't quite work out - the base was a bit solid; perhaps because of too much wholemeal flour. However, it did the job and we finished off the bread and butter pudding.
I hoped my full tummy would help me sleep better tonight.
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