It was the best of times, it was the worst of times!...
We had the most rip roaring day yesterday. Lady Boubou finally hit her stride knocking off a cool 200Nm in 24 hours in only 10-15 knots of breeze, and we watched as boats drifted away into the distant haze north east of us (which is good!) But as quickly as the unpredicted wind arrived yesterday, so the weather forecasters got their smug revenge and took it away from us at around 9 pm last night. We wobbled and wallowed through a very peaceful night but not really making much
ground on that bottle of rum at the end of the rainbow. And so with dawn approaching, we settled in for our usual early morning surge of breeze.....but it tailed off even more! Until finally we were down to
"undetectable" levels of wind.
I realised the boat was very quiet and feared the worst as I got up to start my watch at 0900 and my fears were justified. Every other crew member was on deck and as I came up to the fly bridge I barely
finished climbing the stairs when I was asked the all too common question in these circumstances which has no answer...."What shall we do now ca-pi-tan???????" Erm, ummm, errr, turn back time and go West North West from Gran Canaria?
So anyway, I have held firm and we are not using the engine!!!! We are just traveling very slowly.
Today however, we saw a big whale, 2 friendly dolphins (or 2 very cunning sharks trying to make us swim with them), went swimming, saw MASSIVE jellyfish, got out, sat in the sun, washed the boat, noticed the gooseneck had detached from the mast and that the boom was about to crash through the hull, hammered the pin back through the boom therefore reattaching the gooseneck, ate some lunch and now I'm sat here doing this blog!
All in all a very busy and exhausting day to say we've done nothing and moved nowhere.
Everyone is in good spirits (partly because I'm spoiling them with food to cheer them up a bit), and looking forward to these illusive trade winds which should officially be with us in 90 Nm..... Dont tell
the guys, but between me and you, I dont think they are there at the moment and we may have to keep heading south.... Shhhhh!
Anyway, from all aboard to all at home
Lots of love
Team LBB