The journey continues...
Winds off the coast of Africa remain unreasonably light, which is holding our speed down somewhat. We set the spinnaker this AM, which helps somewhat. At least the weather is clear and generally beautiful. Another boat appears on the horizon every so often. Some are sailboats headed in obscure directions. Others are tankers and freighters. Their destination remains a mystery (except for some of the larger ships which have autoidenfication systems that we can query, thereby ascertaining things such as their speed, heading, nationality and destination). Currently, the plan is to head south until we get nearer the Cabo Verde archipelago. Then we'll head west on what we hope to be somewhat stronger trade winds. There's funky weather on the rhumb line between the Canaries and St. Lucia. Heading that way would doom us to light winds or, even worse, headwinds. These are things to be avoided.
The junior mates are engaged in several projects. Homework gets done with surprisingly little prompting and Matthew, at least, is keeping up on his journal. Cooking is a tasteful adventure, as well. We had hash-browns, eggs, tomatoes, bacon, toast and coffee this morning. One of the first mates was so impressed that he washed the dishes (technically one of their chores as well, as cooks). There's also an ongoing contest as to keeping a small basil plant (the only growing thing aboard the boat other than algae and scum) growing and happy. Wesley's trying hard, but the plant seems like it doesn't have the will to live. We have a small poetry project pertaining to this as well. More later...
Our fishing rods remain out. No love so far but we remain hopeful.