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Annabella - Log 6 - 1st December



Position: 18 50.825N
26 52.723W

Distance since last blog: 150NM

Today we have flying fish and sunshine which are the first real signs of tropical climate todate. In contrast to yesterday when we had force 7 winds, huge seas and rain. The upside of the F7 is that we had some great sailing and Annabella at one stage achieved 15.4 knots surfing down the back of a wave. That's a record for the boat and probably the highest winds she has experienced. We had two reefs in the main and the genoa was also heavily reefed. We were expecting a line of squalls during last night so kept the reefing, but they didn't really happen. That probably cost us about 20 miles in distance. The Sweden 45 is a great boat for the heavy weather which it can handle with relative ease. Very comforting. We are still waiting for the easterly trade winds which will allow us to fly the poled out head sails.

During the F7 yesterday we were trying to get on with the daily chores. I decided to turn the eggs (as you do) to keep them fresh when we were hit with an extra large wave. In the melee I saw an egg flying out of the cupboard like a missile and it hit the fridge door on the other side of the boat. Lucklly, I was also dislodged from my position, ended up across the boat and dodged the egg. Nurofen wouldn't have been able to ease the blow to my pride (not to mention the slagging) if the egg had hit me, but it is doing a good job on my hip.

In addition to the flyiing fish, we also saw a whale yesterday which passed within about 50 metres of the boat.

The galley slave (Conor) produced a very tasty stew for dinner yesterday. It was a bit like trying to cook in a washing machine. Not only is it necessary to have cooking skills, but it is essential to be an athlete with dexterity and finesse. Carbonara is on the menu for this evening and, as I'm the galley slave, I'm hoping for calm seas.

We are at last heading west to our final destination with under 2000 NMs to go. St Lucia's latitude is 14N so we have to drop down 4.5 degrees (270NM) over the 2000.

Showers, which are a luxury, are being allowed today with a ration of about 1.5 litres each from water making production. The air should take on a different fragrance post showers.

Finally, we are now one full week at sea, we are in great shape and still talking to each other. We are eating well and if anyone is losing weight it is down to a reduction in alcohol intake rather than food intake. Water just doesn't have the same effect.

Farewell until blog 7.

Peter (Pug), Conor, Craig, Stephen & Terry

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