Endeavour of Cork - Day 4 - Sunday 20th Nov

Day 4 - Sunday 20th November

Well, a miracle truly was performed on board Endeavour yesterday!! Dermot and Conor, after a long day stuck with their heads up pipes most of us would prefer not to even know about, fixed the bloody loo. Hurrrraaaayyyyyyy! Turns out it was some calcium deposit that had built up (that may be an over-simplification of the reality, I didn't particularly seek any more details, thanks very much) and with a huge effort they managed to clear it and all is running smoothly again. A major clean-up ensued (of both the heads and the guys) and order has been restored. Phew! The pair of them have definitely earned their place in heaven (and a large pint or two in St. Lucia!!!)

The night shift was dark and wet (see Conor's mild ravings in the last blog - we may need to send a minder out with him for the next while, to verify his sanity!), and I woke for the 6am watch to more cloud, rain and intermittent squally winds. We're getting mightily sick of this weather, far too much like home if you ask me (except it's warm), and because we're on our ear half the time all hatches have to remain closed so the boat is getting stuffy and damp now. Oh, for about six hours of light winds, calms seas, and sunshine so we could air the boat and ourselves a bit..... and then it can get back to whooshing us along our track as much as it likes.

Dermot reckons we overtook a boat during the night - woohoo!! We've no way of knowing who it was, or even if it was an ARC+ boat (it would be lovely to have the YB tracker!) but never mind, it's a boost to our mood.

At 11am (we're still operating on Cape Verde time, so UTC-1) we'll have our radio net session again, and although only about 1/3 of the boats participate, it gives us a feel for where we are in relation to the others - and also reassures us that we're not the only ones suffering misery in the rain and the wind! We've had a look at some Passage Weather forecasts for the next 24 hours, and it looks like there might be some reprieve on the way - unfortunately in the form of a giant hole which we'll have to try to avoid. While earlier we were trying to keep a course north of due west, in light of this we've decided to head a small bit south of west in order to avoid the worst of the light (or no) winds. However my faith in forecasts is at the "highly sceptical" level by now, so it remains to be seen if this tactic pays off for us (that last was especially for Aisling Power, if she's reading!!)

Thanks Terry Leonard for the email - great to hear from you! Yes indeed, we do seem to have had more than our fair share of incidents - all we want is a quite life for a few days now!!

Endeavour, over and out.

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