6 October 2010
This is more like it. The sun is shining out of a cloudless sky. Voyageur is bowling along under full genoa and mizzen, the reefs having been shaken out for the first time in six days. This morning we emerged tentatively from the cocooned enclosure of our cockpit tent like two mice from their mouse hole and instead of finding an angry cat, the sun shone down kindly upon us. We luxuriated in the warmth of its rays, wonderfully restorative to mind and body. I am sitting making a Mauritius courtesy flag from scraps of material in my sewing locker and have started a new book. David is reading his book. Last night I heard him singing along with his I pod. It was a rather tuneless sound but lovely to hear nevertheless. The seas are still running high but there are now no breaking waves and the colour is the deep cobalt blue of the ocean. Life on board has become civilised with an air of familiarity about it. Cooking is once more a pleasure, not simply a necessity and not the crisis meals of the past days. A roast dinner is planned for tonight. We have now dipped under the 1000nm to go mark. Although the racing start for the leg was abandoned most of the fleet are still racing. Racers will always be racers. So long as we can keep up a speed of 5knots or over and Neptune does not rage against us we are very content. The experience of the past week has taught us many things but most of all it has taught us that we have a great boat.....
Susan Mackay