Firefly - Time change

We have crossed our first time zone and just put the clock back and hour. Unfortunately Murray has to stand another hour on his watch so the times they are a changing for him more than Paul and Peter.

After an evening of light winds a good 15 knot wind from the North has kicked in pushing us along at 7 to 8 knots. We started the morning hoisting the gennaker (our reaching spinnaker flown off the bowsprit) but took it down when gusts went over 20 knots. Our 24 hour log was down to 134 miles but at our current pace we are hopeful of an improvement today. As we head South West the temperature will be gradually rising, however the wind from the North is currently a bit cooler, feeling like it has come from Northern Europe! - That is enough about the weather!

Peter spotted the water spout from a whale 100 metres in front of us at first light. Shortly afterwards we crossed paths (well within 300m) of a Spanish tug heading South and Paul saw a turtle. As we write this we are passing a an oil rig under tow so not the quiet ocean we expected!

The team are being creative with their cooking skills - so much for prepared menus! The squid (which when purchased was thought to be white fish) was successfully tamed by Peter for supper last night (marinated, then fried with onions and peppers and served on a bed of couscous)thanks to Rod and Lou Heikell's 'Trade Wind Foodie' We have enough for another evening and Murray is planning to showcase a unique squid based pasta dish, Spaghetti Murray (Mare) e Monti!

We are back on astro navigation duties with good sun and moon sight this morning. Paul is also training up Murray on the dark art of sextant use.

Paul, Murray, Peter and Grateful (still on his perch)