Wednesday 26th November
Beef burgers with roll and salad for dinner last night;
not bad considering how badly the boat was pitching. We will now need to go on a
marathon banana eating binge as approximately 40 bananas are all ripening
exceedingly quickly! Same goes for the pears and avocados
We managed 178 Nm yesterday; hoping for a similar tally
today. The shame is the fleet are spreading outwards rapidly. After sunset we
could only see 4 boats around us.
Started grading rubbish today: I won’t bore you with the
details, but having thrown away all extraneous packaging back in port, there’s
still a great deal which has to be stashed somewhere!
Although we can’t judge (easily) where we are in
relation to the rest of the fleet, it’s our guess that we’ve taken a northern
mid route. The boat (and ourselves) are settling into a bit of a routine and
things are getting easier. I wish I could say the same about the lack of sleep.
Monday was a very disturbed night as the conditions were sloppy without enough
wind. Every wave would shake the rigging, so we resorted to the engine to ease
the problem.
Last night, in between the clouds, we all enjoyed star
watching as the boat silently scudded along at a steady and pleasant 8-9 knots
with the bio-luminesce of plankton providing yet another firework display.
Thankfully we all got a better night’s sleep; the rocking motions of the boat
our lullaby.
This morning we caught a Mahi Mahi fish on the ‘never
fail’ tuna lure. We were doing about 8 knots at the time we caught it, which
made the logistics of landing it interesting! We furled the headsail, and let
out the main which reduced our speed to 6 knots; we were all reluctant to stop
the boat for a fish. Alastair and I
then battled for 15-20 minutes pumping the rod and winding the real, certain in
the knowledge that it was nothing less than a Marlin or small Sailfish of
probably 50lbs; we could even see his sail and bill and one time. Having got the
fish to the rear of the boat we saw it was a regular Mahi Mahi of approximately
4-5Kg – enough for the four of us. The sea was pitching and I wasn’t clipped on,
so I was anxious not to step onto the stern sugar scoop. I thought it would be
an easy enough task to lift him on board using the boathook as a gaff. After 3
failed attempts we did at least manage to get the fish onto the sugar scoop,
which only upset him more and after a few shakes of his head he was free of the
hook and gracefully slid back into the water, waving goodbye!
First boat failure today; the skippers heads (WC), HELP!
I must have spent 20 minutes
bailing out macerated excrement whilst the crew had their second dolphin
sighting. One toilet now between 4 guys for the next 2 weeks; OMG!!!! Keeping up
the regime of charging the batteries every day, which takes less time than we
calculated; only 2 hours per day rather than 4, which means more fuel for
motoring should we need to.