Cloud Jumper - Mental Lentils and the Blister Shift

It is day 17 at sea today and it is definitely starting to smell like it! Luckily we are all suffering personal hygiene breakdown at a similar rate so it is barely noticeable.
Not a huge amount to report really, the flying fish are now starting to fly into the actual cabin interior of the boat through any open hatches. None have survived yet and unfortunately you would need a whole shoul (or flock)to make a decent breakfast for 4 of us.
The seas have been getting increasingly lumpy lately and with all the pitching and rolling Cloud Jumper will often throw you in a random direction so it can be a  surprise where you end up sometimes. Mathias got violently launched from his bunk the other morning and after a big crash ended up on the cabin floor keeping the flying fish company. His good looks survived ladies, he is pretty tough for a Belgian.
We also had a "Mental Lentils"episode the other evening, Jowan with the assistance of Mathies were cooking a Veggie Curry using a squash and lentils anyway just as the lentils had reached boiling point we were side swiped by a wave and the whole pan of boiling water, lentils 'n' all lifted off of the gimbled stove into the direction of Jowan who was only wearing swimming trunks, thanks to some pretty nifty matrix style footwork and perhaps some divine intervention Jowan did not get scolded at all. There were red lentils eveywhere and they are still turning up 3 days later in places you really would not expect to find them.
With our "watch" or shifts rota all of our worst shift we have called the "Blister Shift" it runs from noon to 3pm and it really is the hottest, sweatiest most uncomfortable watch out of  all of them and everyone dreads their turn once every 4 days.
The Sea state is pretty rough at the moment with waves coming from directly astern and every now and again a couple of bigger ones off the starboard quarter, despite all the movement and with the Mental Lentil incident still fresh in our minds last night we decided to make a carbonarra it was really lovely as we all joined in to make it , I grated the parmisan  and garlic, Neil encouraged our reverse osmosis water maker "Karen" to make some actual water for the linguinne . Jowan dealt with the eggs and bacon and Mathias helped put it all into a meal. It was amazing and also shows how after 17 days together on this little boat we are still a great team and don't always feel the need to strangle each other, the experience has made us all much more tollerant of each other - still got a few days to go so will keep fingers crossed haha.
Neil is doing press ups for each day we are at sea so he did 17 this morning (he is now asleep) it is our main way of keeping track of the days.
Last night at 3am we put a reef in the main sail and furled in about half of the genoa as the wind increased to 28knots. It has dropped off a bit this afternoon but the swell is 3 - 4m and still blowing 23 knots. Cloud Jumper is flying down the waves at 10+ knots it is like surfing on a 38 foot surfboard!
We did 157 nautical miles in the last 24 hours which must be a near record for us. 736 NM to go. We have had some amazing sunsets and sunrises, the mid Atlantic is a really beautiful place. With the waning moon not rising until about midnight at this latitude, the first half of the night is jet black so the stars are really amazing too. There is also phosphorescent trails around the boat as it cuts through the waves which are really spectacular on the darkest nights.

Well that is about it for now, we all send our love and will post some pictures later too. Thanks for your messages of encouragement xx

Peter, Neil, Jowan and Mathias and Karen xxx