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Jo - 20:50:01N 31:36:96W



Sunday 30th November 2014

It was all looking so promising, charging along at 8-9 knots ever since we left Las Palmas. That all changed last night when we seemed to enter a vacuum. The sails flogged and sea flopped us from side to side. Because it was night and everyone needs their sleep, rather than make any drastic changes to the sail plan, we furled the genoa and motored with the engine in search of wind. By 03:00 the wind had returned and we were sailing again in 10 knots of wind on a beam reach heading approximately 270 degrees; a rhum line for our final destination. There was purpose again to our venture. Ever since then, a pattern has emerged of wind steadily building and then dying, interrupted by the occasional small squall of no more than 20 knots. Currently we are bobbing along at 8 knots in NE F4; we decided to ring the changes with the ‘code zero’ which is a lovely sail and can be used on a close reach.

Because of the lighter winds, Alastair and I have diversified our range of normal duties. Alastair has embraced the title ‘ship’s chef’ and has excelled today by not only cooking the banana bread (in the oven as we speak) but is also cooking fish and chips in the oven to make best use of our limited supply of butane. I have washed tea towels (which were particularly skanky) and (separately!) my smalls. It’s now very humid and 30 degrees below deck which means nothing dries unless it’s hung outside and even then it is subject to sea spray.

This morning we landed our first fish (bonito or small tuna?). This put a smile on my face as the previous attempt this morning ended in disaster as something very large snatched the squid lure and stripped off approx. 75 yards of line back to the reel in under 10 seconds, followed by a smarting whiplash as it went ‘ping’. I reloaded the reel with line and a smaller lure which resulted in the fish you see below. Generally we are going too fast for the lure to be effective, however being an optimist I leave it out.

PS. Thanks to the many blog watchers who emailed recipes for banana bread; it was a great success and something we’ll be doing again.

....not sure what the RCC would have to say about this signal?!



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