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Joy of Shamrock Quay - Day 14



Light winds again for the last coupe of days has slowed progress once again. despite a forecast of 13-18 knots we barely have had 10 and probably averaged 8, only just sailable for us. At least there is not much swell so the sail isn't collapsing quite as much as it has done. Yesterday was quite cloudy and as the evening approached those clouds turned very black so we were on high squall alert. Sure enough, at 10pm I switched on the radar for a quick look and was shocked to find an enormous area ahead showing yellow and red! It took up 3/4 of the radar screen with another smaller one behind. It was showing 6 miles away with a diameter of 16 miles, and within 10 minutes had reduced to 3 miles away, so I woke Jez and Graham to help douse and drop the Big Fella and get the genoa out incase of high winds. This we did very quickly and efficiently, just as the enormous rain drops started falling the hatch was shut and waterproofs dusted off. It was just an enormous rain cloud, not a squall, winds did not increase to more than 16 knots but we did get a fresh water shower for an hour or so.

I spotted a sailing vessel behind us at about 6am, and as day dawned I could see very clearly that a yacht flying a parasailor was very quickly hunting us down. I suspected it must be La Rochelle, so woke Jez as it got near and we got the Big Fella out again in a bid to increase speed as they closed in on us.

They have made amazing progress having had to return to Cape Verdes a few hours after the start when their gooseneck fitting broke. They restarted some 30 hours later and have not only caught us up, but overtook us close enough to have some banter and listen to 'we come from a land down under' bursting from their speakers. Well done La Rochelle!

We could only watch as they roared on past, their parasailor performing extremely well in the light airs with little rolling, and by mid day they had disappeared from our horizon leaving us out here alone once more, bobbing.

We haven't been able to put our towed generator out either because of our low boat speed, but at least the solar panels help keep up with power production during the hot days. With just over 300 miles to go, our fresh produce is slowly diminishing although it has lasted amazingly well, so thank you to the markets and street sellers at Mindelo for some really excellent produce. I have baked my last batch of choc brownies, so we really need to get a crack on now! Please, can we have more wind?

Susie

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