Johanem - McHanem blog wednesday 22 May

Hello family, friends, camp followers and other readers
We have been at sea for almost exactly one week and have covered over 1000 miles with about 825 to go to Horta. All is well on board but we have strong southerly winds which make the boat fairly frisky down below. On the up side we are howling along at 9/10 knots with heavily reefed white sails. The record run over a 3 hour watch is 25 miles with a top speed of 10.3 knots achieved by Stan but competition remains fierce with several days to go. Harry the hydrovane is having to work pretty hard but still manages to steer better than most of the motley over a period of time
On board activities have settled down into the usual relaxed pattern. The wine appreciation club meets every evening, albeit briefly, to sample the delights of the (rapidly) dwindling supply of wine boxes. Over the past week its interesting to note that the crew's palate seems to have moved more to the appreciation of quantity rather than quality. The watch with skipper club has enjoyed the first half of Master and Commander with the rest to follow when the boat is stable enough. Top Gun,Kellys Heroes, Death Wish and the other old favourites will follow soon
The fishing club attendance is dwindling due to lack of success but the recently established whale watching club manages to attract record turnouts at each sighting. Yesterday evening the club members were treated to a show of about 10 whales blowing whale spouts high into the air.
The haute cuisine cookery club has discovered the joys of producing masterpiece after masterpiece at 45/55 degrees. It adds to the challenge somewhat.
The meteorology club continues to provoke lots of debate, mostly ill informed, about the relative merits of the possible "strategies"ie whichever way the wind happens to blow us, the boat could adopt to avoid being last to reach Horta. We appear to be one of the most northerly boats in the fleet so are hoping to pick up favourable westerly or north westerly winds as we close the Azores.Time will tell!
The singing and joke telling clubs have been scaled back due to the fact that all onboard (bar one) seem to find an urgent need to desert the cockpit when the club meetings open. Wonder why?
Anyway, that's enough from the skipper for now. Bye!!