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Selene - 3 wheels on my wagon . . .



Tuesday 4th December

We have passed our first night with no electricity. The instruments held out so far and are only using 0.4A of current. We are not sure how long it will take to deplete the battery at this rate, but hopefully with careful husbandry we can keep them for the night time. By day we use the binnacle compass and a GPS stuck to the binnacle with gaffer tape. A very sophisticated arrangement. By night the compass light draws too much current and it is helpful to have the wind information especially when the moon rtises late and the night is very dark with clouds obscuring the clouds. Last night was clear overhead with a magnificent view of the milky way, but clouds obscured the horizon.

The wind continues unabated at 20-25 Kts whih is good for speed, but does nothing for our comfort

I have never seen the pleasure in the well known Swedish sport of slapping your fellow in the face with a wet fish as reported by the Monty Python team many years ago. A close encounter with a flying fish last night did nothing to increase my desire to give it a go.

I can tell you two things about a flying fish - they really stink (worse than my deck shoes) and they flap a lot when they can't get back in the water. Every night we are picking them off the decks.

Last night I was on watch with Lily again who was trimming the headsail after reducing it slightly as we were a little pressed. Suddenly I received a viscious smack in the face by a laser guided flying fish whose head then proceeded to find the tiny chink of an opening at the neck of ny oilskins, down which it wedged and flapping its tail madly, further slapping me about the face. Lily syas I screamed like a girl as I let go of the wheel and scrabbled madly to open my jacket to remove the offending fish, hampered by my life jacket.

Can you imagine how difficult it is to remove the smell of fisnh from your beard on water rationing using wet wipes? I almost shaved it off when I came off watch. To add insult to injury Lily told me I smelt bad! Needless to say the fish died. Bob informed me that he has seen phosphorescence in the eyes of the flying fish as they leave the water. I think this must be the glow from the headup display of their target acquisition system. I shall howver be watching the water closely tonight although goodness only knows where my attacker last night came from.

Today we have put the clock back another hour - only two more to go. Bob informs us we have only1200 miles to run. It is interesting to see how far south Scarlett Oyster has dropped. This is probably a tactical move to miss the wind hole ahead. Unfortunately we are too slow to get far enough south to miss the hole completely so are continuing along the rhum line on the great circle route, although we have dropped a little south. We think we shall have stronger wnds here after the light stuff, but there seems to be a bit of upwind sailing ahead, albeit in gentler winds than previously.

We think Persephone is close behind and Albacor is stretching out her lead on us and probably has a kite up in the slightly easier conditions.

We are about to have lunch. Today we are having scambled egg and bacon and are almost at the end of the fresh rations now our fridge has died. We had a nasty moment with some water melons in a forward locker along with the spare life jackets. They have not survived the bumping and heat and have begun to rot - what a horrible job Rob did cleaning the mess up.

I am watching as my battery reserve slowly dwindles. We may be able to connect to the battery to get a message off tomorrow, I certainly hope so.

Meanwhile KBO.

Selene out!

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