Monday, 24th January 2011 (Presently at sea)
00.00hrs Distance to Salvador...........................1,344 miles
Distance traveled..................................573 miles
It was a beautiful starry night, the seas had moderated, and sunrise was spectacular, oh they are some of the great things about sailing through the night. Its a pity we have to sleep.
09.00hrs Radio Call :- Eowyn was net controller, but as they were 381 miles behind us, it was difficult to hear them properly and had to do relays through other boats in between at times. Wild Tigris is 32 miles away from us, not out in front, but rather sideways to the North.
We had lots of naps and coffee, fresh ground coffee at that, made by Emily. We put out the fishing line again, this time with a different lure, more like a big sprat rather than the squid we had on previously. However it could take days to get even one bite.
14.00hrs We decided to gybe and head northish towards the Rum Line as we were now 34 miles south of it, and there is no benefit of going to the south side, this took about 20 mins, but we settled down nicely after and had more coffee.
The breeze held up nicely all day, and was marginal for the spinnaker, so we decided against using it for the moment, crikey, if we loose this sail, we would be at a severe disadvantage right away for the rest of this leg, and there is still a long way to go...
Skipper did some messages, and caught up with emails from Dave Hennesy and Robbie Andrews, plus many others like Michelle and Alan & Ian Mc Millan.
Meanwhile, the others were busy in the cockpit reading and taking the sun, while Sham was busy feeding his "Tape Worm". Skipper has decided that he has to have a tape worm, and whats more, it must be at least 20 feet long, It has to be fed all day and all night at regular intervals, and it shares the blooming pipe as well. Did you ever in you life come across a tape worm that smokes a pipe. Well this is it, and poor old Sham doesn't get a look in, either the food or the smoke. Look at him, a walking bag of bones.
But he is great company, and his memory is excellent, continuously reminding Skipper of all the rag bags we both knew many moons ago. But "Roches Point" rules apply here... so that's it ......
Emily did the dinner tonight. A chicken curry and rice with ratatouille, very different and nothing left afterwards..... Sham and Skipper had a beer each, a reward for the hard work in executing a gybe and also the worm was gasping too !
We settled down for another beautiful night at sea.
That's another day down,
Signed :- Stephen Hyde ( Skipper )