Joanna - Blog update - a lull in the wind

Seeing the sea state change so quickly is mesmerising. One minute it's a big swell with waves; the next it's glassy and something more recognisable from Mediterranean summer coastal waters.

We hit a lull in the wind (what happened to the predictable trade winds!?) with speeds reaching a lofty 6 knots if we were lucky. The first two weeks was excellent sailing but the coming days looked to be very challenging. Within our sail arsenal, we have a parasail which works very well in light winds but even this struggles with such light winds.

It's been a bit of a waiting game for more wind / making some progress under motor but it's also been an opportunity to try out some sea-based activities, some we'd recommend, others maybe not!

Take a swim - the lack of wind makes you constantly hot and it's very humid. You'll probably be woken up because you're drowning in your own sweat and will be unable to fall asleep because you're sticky from all the suncream you had to put on. Tensions among our crew are running high because everyone is fighting for the best patch of shade. The earlier you get up, the better spot you get - it's like a scene from a European hotel where everyone is waking up at the crack of dawn to place their towels on sun beds to claim ownership. The most obvious solution to this is taking a dip in the water. It's an utterly surreal experience in crystal clear blue waters, 5000 meters below you and no land for well over 1000 miles in every direction. This is really wild swimming. Initially it's pretty terrifying (I mean what's below you!? Is the fish world going to try and get revenge for all the fish we caught!? Did someone just spot a shark!? What was that thing which touched my leg?!) but soon enough you're totally relaxed and have forgotten where you are and what you're doing. Pure bliss.

Find new places to jump off the boat - the next logical step after building the confidence to swim in the water is to jump into the water from the boat. Why is it that humans have an obsession of finding the highest places to jump off into water and are never constantly satisfied with the previous jump? It's almost like it's a primal instinct. The crème de la crème of high places to jump from would obviously be from the top of the mast but logistically this would require a lot of preparation (and some balls) - something we couldn't afford given how hot it was and how much we wanted to cool off. After a bit of experimentation, the highest spot we found was off the helm hard top - 4 meters of free fall before crashing into the cool, refreshing water. 'Cool' is also relative as the sea temperature was actually a toasty 28.4 degrees.

Get out the '2Fast' donut - by this point confidence (and boredom) has increased leading to more creative (and adventurous) ideas. Out comes the '2Fast' donut, an inflatable donut for two designed to be pulled behind a boat. We didn't think we would be using a donut in the middle in the Atlantic but never say never right? This activity involved the engine and before long we were screaming at the person on the helm to 'give it some juice' and 'is that all you've got'. I can't imagine what the tracking data looks like but if anyone asks there was an exceptionally strong gust for about 30mins which caused us to go very quickly and zig zag around! A small piece of advice if you want to try this at home though: make sure the donut is properly attached to the towing rope. No matter how relaxed you are as an individual, seeing the rope detach from the donut and boat head off into Atlantic without you does make you question some of your life choices. On the plus side, it was a great man overboard drill and I think and we can confirm all crew members have been accounted for.

Unblock the waste holding tank - Earlier in the passage we discovered that one of the waste holding tanks was blocked leaving 80L of poo sloshing around (accumulated from the previous 2 months) - yum. When boredom really starts to take over, you start to see if there are any maintenance jobs which you've been putting off that you complete. This particular job involved diving under the boat with a toilet plunger and trying to clear the blockage. We're pleased to report the blockage has now been cleared - no more lingering toilet smell onboard anymore! Without getting too graphic about how events unfolded, the contents of the (full) tank started flooding out into the sea and the 'chief unblocker' (a job I don't think anyone was envious of) quickly shouted to the others swimming 'everyone out of the water quickly!!'. When they shouted this, no one actually knew they had been unblocking the tank and a sense of panic took over - what was happening, was it a shark!? Why did we need to leave this tropical bliss!? No shark, something much worse! It was actually a steady stream of 2 month old poo heading to the rear of the boat right where everyone was swimming. I'm pretty sure everyone got out quicker than if there had actually been a shark though. When everyone was out and the 'chief unblocker' returned he had an unusual smile on his face. It turns out using a toilet plunger to unblock a waste tank in the middle of the Atlantic is weirdly satisfying, especially being close enough to watch all your hard work pay off in front of your very eyes. I think we'll take his word for it. This was definitely the point we all agreed enough fun for the day and that it was time for a bit of engine to make a quick get away!