16:28.2N 28:52.10W
Monday 20th Nov 0620. Just finished my watch and heading back to my bunk for another couple of hours kip. Ed’s now got the reigns and we’ve been sailing at 6kts with a fluky NE wind blowing between 8 and 13kts. A quiet night but had to adjust our heading by +/- 10 degrees to keep the sails full and try to stop any flogging which can cause wear and tear; something we’re very conscious of, following the sail repair back in Mindelo.
Yesterday we saw our first dolphins - first 3 came by and played on the bow wave for about 10 mins. Then just before dusk, a whole pod came by to take a look at us - must have been 20 or so messing around RB, but they didn’t stay long and headed off to wherever they were travelling to in this vast ocean. Lovely to have their company, as they are such wonderful and joyful creatures.
We also finally landed our first fish of the trip - one that was more than a ‘snackette’ this time! A very nice Wahoo, which is one of the tastiest around and it obviously shared my liking of music by Goldfrapp, as that is what was playing from Rich’s playlist at the time. Nick and Ed dispatched it with a shot of cheap gin and it was filleted in time for sashimi as a starter, just before Ed’s lovely chicken curry. The rest of the Wahoo will be grilled for brunch in the morning! Just as we sat down for the curry, there was a bit of a commotion from the fishing line that had been reset, as a lovely bird got its wing entangled with the line, but with some care, Mark, Nick and Ed managed to free it and it flew away - a very relieved and lucky bird.
We’ve got 1,930 NM to go, so it’s been slow progress these past few hours and we expect the light winds to reman for a couple of days, so we’ll try to get the new spinnaker up in the morning to give us better speed. The rest of the fleet is still between 130 and 180 Nmiles ahead and travelling at a similar pace, so we’re not making inroads into catching them yet. Let’s hope the spinny does its job and we can start to reel them back in!
Sleep beckons now, so I’ll bid you adieu for now.
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