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Selene - Friday



Another day of winds in excess of 20 Kts. It has been a tough night and we managed a gybe just before dark. The evening watch was very rock and roll with another confused sea state, but earlier I had a superb watch catching 3 or 4 waves on the trot to keep boat speed above 10 Kts for extended periods of up to 30 secs and rarely dropping below 8Kts. Whilst consistency is the key, as racers we can't help but to compete with each other. No sooner had Bob joined the 13 club than the student body raised the bar to an impossibly high 15.87 Kts in one particularly spectacular surf. It seemed this was an impossible target, but I was able to restore the proper order in the boat with an incredible 16.77 Kts. The instruments display Vmax and I feel certain this will endure. Come on Bob!

Numbers for the day are 189 miles in last 24 hours and over 750 miles completed to date so more than half way to half way!

There are three of us who feel comfortable helming in these conditions and the watch system is a very easily managed 2 hours on and 4 hours off for the helms whilst Kevin and Lily are doing 3 on 3 off at night and 4 on 4 off during the day to alternate the watches as second on deck. By day they are reading and by night often snoozing in the cockpit when not trimming or making tea and coffe for the helm. We chat as well and it has been wonderful to spend these hours with my daughter Lily, often we sit in happy silence as the concentration and sheer physical effort required to keep the boat on course is quite intense. Allow the boat to come off more than 20 degrees high and you need almost full rudder to prevent her broaching out and backing the foresail poled out to windward. This is associated with huge rolling and is very unpopular with the watch below who find themselves on the cabin sole surrounded by the fruit which has bounced out of the nets or shredded itself through.

During these silences the mind wanders and you often get an ear worm of some shred of music or poetry or stupid joke which goes round and round as the numbers on the mast dance before you. One persistent thread with me is time. My watch is kept on GMT also known as UTC so I know what the folks back home are doing. I think of Vicki and Vincent constantly and can't wait till they join me in St Lucia. Freddie and Zoe are grown up and independent now but they also claim an important place in my thoughts and I look forward to the time we shall spend together cruising in the Caribbean over Christmas and the New Year.

In additon to UTC we also have boat time. We are crossing time zones every few days and in order to preserve the normal rhythm of life we are adjusting "boat time" by putting the clocks back an hour every 3 or 4 days till eventually we will be running on Caribbean time which is 5 hours behind UTC. Curretly we are 1 hour behind and plan to put the clocks back another hour at lunchtime.

Food also plays an important part of life. It is a little hard with the boat being thrown around by the waves, but thank goodness for the pressure cooker. So far we have had spicy chicken and tomatoes, pork and peppers and last night a delicious spicy chicken and pepper stew with chinese noodles cooked by Kevin who is now feeling much better since the sea sickness has abated and is working tirelessly in the galley. We have had fresh baked bread every day and a delicious lunch of tomato salad, pimentoes a la padsron ( baked with salt) and some more of the delicious Serano ham - what a great buy. The cheese is a bit ripe and makes opening the fridge a far from pleasant experience, but it all tasted great, especially the pimentoes -tip top. All washed down with a nice cold beer - perfect. Breakfast this morning was porridge and dried fruit prepared by the skipper and a cheeky piece a jam,on for those willing, fresh orfange juice and a delicious nespresso coffee. Lunch today was the remains of Kevin's soup made into a delicious meaty soup with a few sachets of chicken cuppa soup and fresh baked bread - maybe I should have another beer?

Managed to catch an episode of Homeland last night and have been listening to the iPod on helm this morning whilst Lily and Kevin were reading. It chose a spectacular play liust and we have taken a few video clips to put together with a spunky sound track - you just have to do it. Far from bored it is great to have so much time to reflect and enjoy this extraordinary journey with a great crew.



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