Wednesday 5th December
Phil writes:
Having had a good night during which Andy had us bowling along at 11 kts, we started the day with cloud around. The first thing we saw was some loose stitching on the Genoa sail. Luckily the ever intrepid Rob did a super repair hanging out over the guard rail.
As we're not getting enough sunshine to charge the batteries, we have to run the engine to keep them sufficiently charged. The bonus of this is that we get HOT WATER, so Andy and I took the opportunity of a shave and shower.
Cally used the chance of hot water to wash the bed sheets. The mangle is a bit old-fashioned - i.e. Rob and Cally wringing between them. The plus side was we got 1/2 knot more speed when drying the sheets.
One thing I learned last night is not to use the door of the heads (WC) to hold on to when the boat is moving about a lot: I ended up at 1.30am naked with the door in my hand, as it had risen of all 3 hinges. It took me several goes to get it back on.
We did have a fish on the line this afternoon, but it got away before we could land it.
As I write we are doing 9 kts into the setting sun, already through 35 deg west and we will be half distance tomorrow morning.
Lunch consisted of homemade quiche and coleslaw, with lime-marinated, pan-fried dorado fillets, which was fantastic!! Supper will be Thai chicken curry with rice and green beans, plus the last of the fresh
mango...