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Gozwoz - Day 10 from Bermuda



A day of motoring due to the lack of wind. But even this brings added surprises to an otherwise lazy day. The sea is now like a rippled mirror and this makes it easier to see marine life up to 400 yards away. Consequently today has been a nature day - several pods of dolphins, at least three turtles, myriad sail jellyfish and, lo and behold, another two whales! The latter were seen off the port beam and were about 300 yards away. Traveling lazily about 4 knots first one then the other blew through their blowholes. One then decided to dive, the tail fin flashing in the afternoon sun.

With regards to the weather the ARC weather forecast has promised, by tomorrow, a north-westerly wind, presumably the northern part of the high we are motoring across. All afternoon the wind has been backing - ENE to NE to NNW and then the magic NW. However, at 3-4 knots it is not yet sailable. We expect it to freshen overnight. The Bosun is on call for this event.

Our diesel seems to be going a little further than expected. Today the Coxswain put numbers 4 and 5 of the 6 jerry cans of fuel in the tank and we anticipate that we have enough fuel for about three days motoring. Providing the wind comes as promised this should be ample.

The rest of today has been filled with housekeeping maintenance. OGL notes that his wife will not believe he instigated this. Indeed he did not. The crew, led by Roger the cabin boy and the Navigator, have had the seat cushions and some of the interior seats out on deck, cleaning and drying them. They do look better for this attention.

Whilst the engines continues to drive us towards our destination we have experienced excellent periods of sleep and are all feeling refreshed. The minnow was rested again today on the basis that we should really deal with the fresh food we have brought with us before hauling more on board.

The fleet is getting stretched across several hundred miles and this, together with the high pressure system, is affecting the quality of the SSB signal, both in volume and clarity. Hopefully we will be able to sort this out, probably by changing to a higher frequency.

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