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Endeavour of Cork - Day 6 - Tuesday 22nd November




Day 6 - Tuesday 22nd November

Well, what a thrill it is to log on this morning and report that.... we basically have nothing to report!!!

In the last 24 hours nothing broke, we had no dramas, no major squalls - we're just plodding along at our desired course of 270, unfortunately under engine basically since 4pm yesterday but hey, you can't have everything!!

Yesterday afternoon the wind gradually calmed down and down until we finally had to turn on the engine before we stopped completely. The water around us turned almost glassy, and for most of the day we had about 3kts of wind. It wasn't blisteringly sunny - still plenty of cloud cover - and there was the odd light shower but no big wind to go with it.

We had a fantastic dinner courtesy of Conor - steak, spuds and fried onions and mushrooms - I was on clean-up afterwards, and learned (too late) the cardinal rule in the Phelan household - never get stuck cleaning up after Conor!!! Every single implement the boat possesses must have been taken out and used in the preparation of that dinner. Never mind, I'm not complaining - it was properly delicious!

Laura treated us to a great session of music yesterday afternoon - she has a fantastic selection of music (or had, until her phone apparently deleted half of it for no reason yesterday - disaster!!!) and can definitely be guaranteed the job of DJ at my next party! After dinner we broke out the board games - Conor and Dermot had (and possibly still have) a game of chess going, and we played 30 Seconds - basically a game of verbal charades. It's a very Irish version, though, and poor Anais had an awful time of it trying to describe things like Fr. Ted, An Garda Siochana, ESB, and lots of other stuff she'd never even heard of! I'm tempted to break out the backgammon, but am afraid I'll have forgotten how to play myself, it's been so long. But this calm weather would be an ideal opportunity....

I had a lovely watch from 2-4am, reading The Riddle of the Sands (for about the 10th time) on the Kindle. Much as I half hate the device, a night like last night is where it comes into its own - backlighting down nice and low so it doesn't affect your night vision, total silence apart from the engine, autohelm doing a far better job of steering than I ever could, and I was transported away to the mysterious sandbanks on the shores of northern Germany at the turn of the century and a tale of yachting and espionage and derring-do that is just brilliant. If you haven't read it - all I can say is, do!

It's 9am and the sun is beating down and the water is flat calm - I'm going to start a campaign for a swim this morning. There's a bit of a palaver involved as the back of the boat has to be dropped down and that's where all the diesel and the dinghy are stored - but I'm hoping we can manage it and have a quick dip. Oh just the idea of immersion in cool clear water.......

We're approaching the 700-mile mark, which is basically 1/3 of the way over.... progress indeed!!!

From a sunny Endeavour - over and out!

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