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Golondrina - Sunday



As the heat increases to 35 degrees and the wind drops to near nothing we find our heroes bobbing around in the centre of a weather pattern of …. no wind....

 

Now young Owain features a lot in today's tales.   Our young charge is slowly working his way through the Day Skippers course under the ever watchful eye of, soon to be chief instructor, Dave 'Rainbow' Hartshorn - sorry did he mention this? Anyhow, 'Rainbow' with his wealth of teaching skill gained over many years, and in an attempt to create a degree of realism, thought it would be a brilliant test to hit young Owain with the task of carrying out a mayday drill at 1 am in the morning as he came on watch for the night.  With great gusto, passion and meaning the young Owain gave a perfect re-enactment and all was well.  In the gloom of the cabin, however,  Owain and Dave had failed to notice Gareth doing his Corporal Jones impression, shouting "don't panic, don't panic” whilst running around the cabin collecting valuables together (primarily the grab bag and a bottle of Pinot Noir 2011). Eventually everyone was allowed back to bed .. Well done Dave..!

 

As if Owain hadn't done enough for one day he was later asked to empty the contents of Dave's new Italian fresh coffee maker.  Without any hesitation the young Owain tipped the contents over the side and watched the internal filter plop into the blue. This now joins Stu's fishing kit, an entire spinnaker, a spinnaker bag, a SIM card, 2 plates, 1 fork and a screwdriver.

 

We've now less than a 1000 miles to go. To celebrate we stopped mid Atlantic and the children, ie: everyone under the age of 50, had a swim around the boat until it was remembered that a shark did give us a nudge 2 days ago. Amazing how quickly we all got out!

 

And as if by magic, as 8pm GMT clocked up, the wind picked up and we find ourselves scooting along at 9 knots.  With only 960 miles to go and some 2140 behind us we can almost taste that first cold beer...

 

We also say a massive HI to Becky and hope you had a good flight. See you in St Lucia soon.


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