In Tune - IN TUNE 5th December. Whale ho!

Windy last night and we contemplated bringing down the Parasailor. We decided to continue and it worked out OK - we had a challenging sail and hit a new max. speed of 13.3 knots. Around 3 am it started to ease and was more comfortable after that.
Today, wind has continued relatively light (about 12 knots). Sunny, first excitement for the morning was another big strike on the rod, and once again we lost it. I have come to the conclusion that it's our terminal tackle that's letting us down. Around noon Martin was on watch and yelled "whale ho!" We had a pod of whales (4 - 5) around the boat. We do not know what species they were - about 10 m long and looking like a very large dolphin - perhaps someone can look them up for us.
The big milestone of the day was passing the half way mark. We celebrated the event by having a wash and changing our towels & knickers. The forecast was for stronger winds and rain squalls. Late in the afternoon the rain squalls started to come through so we played safe and swapped the parasailor for running under the genoa - slower but safer. In the absence of fish, dinner tonight is pasta.