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Johanem - Johanem Blog 08/05/13



Tuesday

It was another beautiful day onboard Johanem on Tuesday. Since we have moved away from the BVI the intensity of heat and humidity has declined and, of course, the sea breeze has made life on board much more pleasant. Until today the sea has resembled a village mill pond, and the winds have been slight... making progress very comfortable but frustratingly slow. The debate has been whether to put the motor on and incur penalties in the race (Ed: its NOT a race) or to plod on and win the moral high ground. We have tended more to the latter (whilst others seem to have sped ahead) using the time to perfect other interests such as cards, singing and fishing. The loss of our beloved cruising chute which was twisted in a thousand different directions simultaneously (stop sniggering Mssrs Baker and Ogg)also slowed progress, and we are surely towards the back of the fleet now. However fortunately we have been unable to access emails (or post blogs!) due to a problem with the Iridium sat phone system so can't be too sure of our relative position. Oh, and our tracker isn't working so any position reports that are posted on the race/rally tracker are out of date!

Fortunately the wind has picked up today - currently we have 15kts blowing from the SE which is giving us about 8kts of speed... The boat is beginning to lean and the sea is looking much more like the brochure promised... plus we have the satisfaction that the advantage that those with working colour sails have will be diminished and we are feeling confident of good progress from here-on-in!

The watch system is working well - 3 hours on, 6 hours off in teams of 2 as follows:

Boo and Simon
Nick and Giles
Ian and Crispin, and all are getting on well (unless you have heard otherwise on a previous blog..!)

As mentioned, we have been busily perfecting our card skills: Bridge, German Contract whist, 3-card Brag and "727" have all featured and could well be the financial downfall for a number of us before we see land! Giles has clearly had a particularly mis-spent youth and is giving our skipper a run for his money!

We have had a community singing free day today :-) - those laminated song sheets that skipper prepared have been carefully hidden and not a single rendition of Danny Boy has been heard. In my experience, and as anyone who has sailed on Johanem will attest, this is a rare event and well worthy of recording...

.. And finally... we (i.e. Giles) caught another fish today... a much smaller specimen, but a good looker and very tasty. Regrettably we have no idea what it was as it didn't warrant a picture in our Ladybird Book of Fish.

Right, time for a snooze.

All the best from Johanem (roughly half way to Bermuda as I write this - 12:00 am midnight on Wednesday UK time.).
Ian




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