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Lydia - Leg 2 Day 10 - Its the Weekend ........ and a Disaster!



Saturday night at sea. Delicious smells of steak wafting from the galley after a very quiet day of steady progress in the right direction but Lydia has sadly joined the long and growing list of great maritime disasters.......... We've run out of beer! Or at least we think we have. The obscene pile of Superbock lager in 25cl bottles that came onboard on Mindelo and went straight into the bilge (not the dieseley bit thank goodness) has now gone, and our only remaining hope is that the Mate remembers where that last case of Heineken was stowed.

His normal encyclopedic (bit not always entirely logical to the rest of us mere mortals) knowledge of where stuff is stowed has on this occasion failed him and we are contemplating putting him under mild hypnosis to tease this vital information out of him. No problem with getting a watch to swing on this boat! So, there you have it. We are in dire straits and will just have to drink wine and soft drinks instead. Tonight we were treated by the skipper to the fruit flavored caipirinha that he bought in the 'grogue' distillery during our tour of Santo Antão. No expense spared, the skipper passed on the variants that came in plastic (ex water) bottles and purchased a dayglo orange brew that came in a proper glass bottle complete with a label. We all value our eyesight and have treated it with great caution! But with lots of crushed ice it 'slipped down a treat'. So far its only side effect seems to have been a spontaneous outbreak of singing. Not a good one based on what has been heard so far. But with no one else to upset we're going for it!


Overnight the hankee transformed the ominous loose thread into a significantly detached tape at its skirt. After dropping it onto the foredeck after breakfast the sailmakers (aka Matthew & the Doc) set to it and , in the finest traditions of Blue Peter and sticky backed plastic, effected a rather splendid 'rip-stop' repair. So pleased were they with the results that they are considering setting up in business in St Lucia and tonight's supper naturally became Rump Rip-Stop.

Sunset tonight was stunning and though we all have spots in our eyes through staring at it, no one claimed to see a green flash - with or without a caipirinha. It's slightly overcast tonight but on most night watches the stars have been stunning with our recognition of the major constellations confused by all the other stars that we can now see. The Plough points to a pole star that is very low on our northern horizon and as a consequence is frequently hidden in cloud/haze. Our constant companion behind us has been Jupiter and ahead the moon, which first broke cover a few days ago just above the horizon as a crescent. It has continued to wax and is now overhead.

A Sargasso weed update - there's less of it today. The suspicion is that the equatorial current that has been helping us along now has a northerly component, which is swirling it up and away from our westerly course.

After a moment of anxiety yesterday when the chart table computer screen refused to come to life, the cable that had come loose at the back was restored and so too was our connectivity with the outside world. With that done, the skipper was able to contrast and compare the available weather forecasts ranging from MailaSail provided GRIB files and the ARC forecast to our friendly air traffic controller at Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton, who has access to the Royal Navy's view of world weather. There is broad consensus that the weather seems set fair for the next few days so we live in hope of continued steady progress to chisel away at the 465 miles to go and the wizardry is still generating an arrival time late(ish) on the 2nd/early on the 3rd.

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