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Free Spirit - 1000 miles to go! (Free Spirit 62)



We just passed the 2/3rds mark in our passage (see celebratory photos, Tropical is the Canary Islands local brew!), its looking like we'll clock up 3,000 miles due to the various course changes we've needed to do from time to time (the straight line distance is around 2,800 miles), we have just 1,000 miles to go and its feeling like the finishing line is coming into sight :) We're also just under 2 weeks at sea, so very much in the swing of things. We're getting quite large (4 - 5m) swells cruising through at times but with 10s between each and broad, rounded tops, they're fun to ride over. Most of our fresh food has gone, although its lasted remarkably well, we're wondering whether the Las Palmas supermarkets radiate their produce or do something else to make it last! Standouts have been mushrooms, cucumbers, oranges, lemons, potatoes and onions. Not so good were bananas (even v. Green ones), carrots (wrapped in tin-foil and not refrigerated = green & slimy) and corn on the cob (which started life reasonably manky...). We cracked our first coconut yesterday, and the part-bake breads (we brought two cartons) are going well, and we have a lot of salami and ham and other cured meats to sustain us, plus stacks of dried fruit. Bimbo bread is another freakishly long-lasting Spanish product, I had the last two slices (slightly against my better judgement) yesterday with a tuna sandwich, perfectly soft and springy after two weeks, I'm probably glowing in the dark now! Meals have included crumbed fish fillets and chips, smoked salmon and pasta with a white wine sauce, pasta napoletana, and bacon & eggs (tonight's mission from Mark, it's his specialty!)

Nature notes - we're not being treated to a lot of action out here at the moment, bird-life has waned although we're hoping that'll pick up again now that we're getting closer to South America. Flying fish are becoming more daring, we've had three on the deck (two rescued, one expired) but the Darwin prize goes to the one that flew through my porthole window during the night and expired on the bathroom floor! The port holes are oval, 15 x 25cm and set back from the sides of the boat, so that's pretty impressive flying! Still seeing shootings starts at about 1 per half hour, two quite prominent stars towards the west more or less point to the bearing we're on (260), I'm sure they've been used in times gone by to steer to. There are definitely planets up also, if someone could send a basic description of where to look and what we're looking at to [email protected], that'd be great!

We have a winner for the maths puzzle (the odds of finding the stanchions in the rubbish) to announce tomorrow also, thanks to those of you who entered!


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