Friday 6th December 2012
1200hrs GMT (7th December) - miles in last 24 hours - 87
POSITION - 16' 16'55 N , 043' 15.159 W
At mid-day we celebrate 1000 miles to go - camera shy McPhail takes the photos and we share a bottle of rose cava. There's very little wind in totally the wrong direction so the party's a little subdued......Just after our party, and well timed to lift our spirits, approximately 2 dozen dolphins appear from nowhere - could be the 'rough toothed' variety, but as usual it's difficult to tell. Annie hangs over the bow with the camera and we all enjoy the show as they leap and bound all around, but mostly playing with the bow. We're still doing an average 6-7 knots in 9-10 knots wind. It's very hot now, we're all lying about the deck when we see 2 other boats behind us. Late afternoon Ronnie lands his first fish, quite a small dorado but big enough for a meal for 6 so it's served up with boiled potatoes in no time and is absolutely delicious - a long time coming but well worth the wait. Round about this time the wind completely dies and any there is is veering all over the place. We're now very close hauled trying hard to maintain 3-4 knots but still very difficult to judge where the wind is coming from. Early evening the autohelm starts failing - error - " motor stall" indicating interupted power supply/fault on autopilot motor. It continues to work intermittently until giving up the ghost completely later in the evening. Watchleaders back on the helm... The wind starts to fill in again at approximately 0815hrs GMT - it's been a long frustrating night of flapping sails and going nowhere. We're now back to a steady 9-10 knots wind from the N, maintaining a speed of 7 knots. McPhail is back down the lazarette Ist thing in the morning - a real delight, snuggling in with the rubbish bags. Alas, even McPhail is stumped this time... our plan is now to contact the 3 J's; Jefa, Jason and Javier for advice as to where we go from here......