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Makena - Nov 24 - *almost* halfway



Sarah here. We're pretty much in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. We should reach "half the distance to go" early on the morning of Tuesday 25th (tomorrow morning as I write this).

We've seen at least 3 whales, caught a tuna and 2 huge Wahoo/Ono, lost 2 dorado but no lures, and we've been watching flying fish do their dances from the start line onwards. Those wahoo took many hours to prepare for eating/storing. They also required a freezer reorg and some juggling of the meal plans but those are good problems to have. We freeze fish like that for 24 hours before making sashimi, which is what puts lots of pressure on the freezer which had been packed full since Las Palmas. With 3 big food fridges aboard we really can store a lot of days worth of good healthy food using the fridges alone before we even need to open the freezer door. I think the guys were all happy when I handed out magnum ice creams after the wahoo catches... The fishing-net veggies hammocks contain many many onions, garlic cloves, and long lasting veg like yucca. There are also green bananas and eggplants hanging out there with some squash and lemons.
We have potatoes and cabbage and even a delicious melon stored away in dark places. Even the fresh fruit has not yet been all scoffed up. Our fridge capacity means that I have avocados, eggs, and pears for Kai to play with each day... he does get a little more down the hatch all the time (and we have other baby food and things for him to make messes with).

It might have been funny to count how often our two biggest sails, our spinnaker and gennacker, went up and down because it has definitely been more than average due to the had many squalls we've had to contend with. The main sail is down as I write this as it is often just much better that way with the wave and wind direction. We try to look after our boat for the long term and not just go all out for the wrong reasons. We've spent a lot of time wing and wing, as they say, with a foresail out on either side. For a while we were in what was dubbed "no bullshit mode", flying the Spinnacker, staysail and full main :) The trampolines on the foredeck make for some serious salt water showers occasionally. Normally only when people have not taken the precaution of putting their full water proof gear on - that seems to calm the seas! Ha ha.

We've done 5 full days so far with the following distances covered: 185, 200, 186, 162, 191. That makes for about 185 nm average per day even though we spent 3 hours of that first day going so slowly we took a swim break as PW described. This leg we've traveled from 15 degrees West to 41 degrees West. The farthest East that Makena has travelled was into 26 degrees East back on the 8th of August when we picked up PhilTar and his family for a few days holiday in the Greek Islands. If it could be summer in Greece forever we wouldn't be doing this crossing but here we are, headed for another island hopping paradise, wonder what lies in store and what friends and family will make it out to spend time with us. Makena has 9715 miles under her hulls as I write this (and Kai is sleeping on his papa - a sight that makes me swoon).

Since some time yesterday when we pulled ahead of the other multihulls we've been out of VHF radio range and that is less fun than when we can have chats and hear others speaking on the rally channel, VHF 72. We might have to invest in the other system of radio called SSB which works over very large ranges but requires a skilled installation and a very long antenna.

The evening after we caught the tuna Luc made red wine braised tuna steaks and served it out to everyone. Just as he was sitting down with his own plate, a flying fish landed right on his chair - it took us a moment to realize what the flapping noise was and why Luc jumped! That fish made it back into the ocean alive but many of his comrades did not have such timing and did not get thrown back overboard until too late.

We've also been taking our water samples for the microplastic research group. Pulling buckets of salt water aboard is quite entertaining!!!

Hope all our friends and families are well!

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