Drama hit almost immediately after Colin and Callum took over, as the wind dropped and shifted direction several times in short duration. This resulted in multiple tacks and net loss over ground. By the time Alan emerged the decision was made to switch to engine power. We had resisted this up to now as purists and to avoid suffering time penalties in the overall rankings for the ARC voyage to Saint Lucia. But needs must, especially due to lack of significant progress to date and a potential storm looming. We were now making 7 knots in the right direction towards Cape Verde. Sea creatures for the day included more pilot whales and a few dolphins.
24 hour progress – 124 nm – cumulative 207 nm
After 8 hours motoring the wind picked up at last and we were able to sail at a respectable 6-8 knots. Unfortunately, this did not last too long and we had to revert back to motor again in order to avoid “bobbing along on the top of the beautiful briney sea”.
Colin was on cooking duty with his special recipe of Thai green chicken curry – special because we only had red curry, Jamie is vegetarian and Alan doesn’t like coconut! It turned out to be a very respectable effort with all varieties being fully consumed.
Jamie and I had the first night shift again. We were greeted with several vessels deciding to converge on our yacht at the same time. We took the aggressive stance of running away and avoiding them, as most were large cargo vessels. The rest of our shift was taken up with autopilot one-upmanship, where we tried to optimise speed and direction based on prevailing conditions.
Clive the cabin boy standing by...