DTT 197nm
Lunch Spanish Omlette and home made Coleslaw
Dinner Pork Sausages & Mash with Onion Gravy
Today has been a nice simple day. No sail changes, no sail repairs, no dramas, just plain sunshine sailing towards St Lucia. Now THIS, is why we do it - the easy miles in the right direction to conquer our next destination - which I suspect will be the bar in Rodney Bay Marina........
The less demanding conditions have meant that all the crew have had a chance to do more steering which is great. Deb also spent some time doing some tidying up down below today which as an OCD clean freak, impressed me very much. The boys are not doing such a good job and are slowly speading their belongings around which from time to time I fend back into different corners of the boat. For dinner, Richard and Deb cooked us a fabulous bangers and mash with a great onion gravy. Being at sea doesn't mean you can't eat well and I am pleased to say that even without Lucy, Northern Child is holding her own in the galley department.
Last night was another pleasant night of different phases. The pitch black sky by 2000 which later became a star infused scape like tiny diamonds glistening all around. A few clouds here and there and then by the early hours, light looming on the distant Eastern horizon. One thing that you notice when you are at sea is that you see the night sky in all it's stages. Watching the plough rotate around Polaris - the North star for instance. No more Dolphin or Whale sightings yet. Whales we don't tend to see very often but so far I am surprised at the distinct lack of Dolphin activity since the first night. Perhaps they are out there entertaining some other crews and we will be lucky later..........
Due to the esy sailing conditions, I decided it was time to do some fishing, which although slow to get excited about, the crew quickly decided was a great idea when they saw the rod. We let out about 200m of line into the 5000m deep Ocean to try and entice a hunter from the deep to our lure. Within about 3 hours we had our first strike. Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz as the line ripped off the line drew all our attention. I looked back just in time to see what looked to me like a meter long Mahi Mahi break the surface and fly into the air. Mahi Mahi, Dorado or Dolphin fish as it can be called is one of my favourite fish. White meat and very tasty, there is not much better than a freshly caught and cooked Mahi Mahi. I think at this point several of the crew were already prepping the fish in their head and a couple were licking their lips imagining eating it. Of course, if you have done a bit of fishing, you know that getting the fish on the line is the easy bit - getting it in the boat is the important bit. which we failed to do. I put this down to sailing along at 9 knots! An hour later, again another strike, but this time much stronger and the fish easily took 50m of line leaving very little on the spool of the reel. I tightened the clutch to slow the amount of line the fish was taking and handed the rod to Matt who was eagerly anticipating the sashimi. A couple of big tugs on the line and then nothing. Lined snapped, lure gone and no fish. Well you win some you lose some - today the fish was the victor.
Todays crew profile is Tom. Tom has actually now covered a dair few miles on Northern Child, having sailed from Portsmouth to Weymouth with us for the Olympics back in the Summer and then from Gibraltar to Las Palmas before the ARC. So I think in the last 3 months, Tim and I have probably seen more of Tom than his wife! Tom is 65 having recently retired from the motor trade after 43 years and is married to Ann for the last 39 years. Tom and Ann are planning a trip to the East coast of the US next year to celebrate their Ruby anniversary so Tom very cleverly thought he'd get the ARC in this year... Tom has a 54' narrow boat moored in Rugby and together with family and friends manages to while away some peaceful time aboard on the canals. Tom does do some sailing back at home but this is this first Ocean crossing.
In the next 24 hours we are expecting some very light winds and our speed will drop, so the fishing will resume. Our current ETA into St Lucia is sometime between the 11th and 12th. Northern Childs current fastest crossing is 15 days 8 hrs and 10 minutes. This means that if we finish before 1510 on the 12th, it will be the fastest ever ARC Northern Child has done. This is definitely a possibility as we should have a fast finish but will depend completely on the mileage we can achieve in the next 24-36hrs.
So, keep your fingers crossed fo us, for fair winds and that the light spell won't slow us down too much.
Till tomorrow, a very tired
Christian, Tim and crew