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Great Escape of Southampton - Day 6 Great Escape 22 06N 28 56W



Day 6

Well, what a great day this has been! We’ve had 25 to 30 knots just aft of the beam for about 48 hours now, 3 to 4m swells, and Great Escape flying along at 9 to 12 knots.  When the moon is behind the few clouds that are around, helming into the dark sea is fantastic.  It gets even more fun when every minute or so there are some really big waves which need some careful helming to get the best speed surfing down the wave backs. The best night’s sailing I can remember!  Before the moon comes up at about 9.30pm, the night sky is really good.  With no light pollution at all, the Milky Way is very obvious.  I need to get used to the Sky Walk App on my phone – so more practice tonight.  We’ve also logged 2 shooting stars so far.

In the last 24 hours we’ve sailed 158Nm – pretty good.  And we are about one quarter of the way to St.Lucia.  We’ve heard about other boats having gear failures, and our first arrived yesterday – a fitting on the spinnaker pole broke.  We managed to replace it but there’s another related problem now, which hopefully can be sorted today.

More essential though has been Emily’s success with the water maker!  We can have showers again – hurrah!

The crew is bonding (is that the right word I wonder ……?)  The testing phase is over and we can abuse as much as we want!  New game – while Graham occupies himself playing I-Spy, David and I are seeing how much of the boat and crew we can soak with spray.  David managed to get Jan while he was in his rear cabin, quite an achievement!  My best, well, was a soaking for myself, but I’m getting better.

The wildlife is looking up: A couple of visits by pods of small dolphins; flying fish; what looked to be a skua; bioluminescent jellyfish (seen as bright green blobs) in the wake off the side and stern of the boat. 

We’ve still not managed to catch any fish but are persevering.  The dorado will bite soon, surely …….

John 



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