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Endeavour of Cork - Day 9 - Friday 25th November



10am

Well, we've passed all my little milestones overnight - when I did up the log book after my watch earlier our distance to go to St. Lucia was 1060, and miles already sailed was 1084 - that says homeward leg to me!!!

Unfortunately the much hoped-for swim this morning ain't gonna happen, overnight the weather found its voice again, and we woke to clouds, grey sea, squalls and spitting rain. Actually "woke" is the wrong word, as I don't think I slept a wink last night (shocking waste of the nicest combination of watches, 8-10pm and then 6am-8am) - it was like a sauna in our cabin despite the engine being off, and the boat felt like it was on the end of a puppeteer's strings, being jerked around the place (overheating in the middle of the night and unable to sleep is a great time to come up with all this imagery!). Turns out that Conor had taken down the main some time during the night in an effort to keep us as close to our course as possible without constantly gybing, so we were sailing on jib only, and kind of getting draggged around the place after it. The wind was at 16ish knots, and the sea not too rough although it felt like a tempest was blowing from below! Being up on watch was a bit of a relief, to be honest.

While I was on watch we were headed for the mother and father of a squall - it was side-profile on to us, dead ahead, and I don't think I've ever seen anything as dramatic in my sailing life! I dashed down below and closed all the hatches in anticipation of a deluge of rain (forgot to bring the shower gel back up with me), took a few photographs of it (shame I can't get one onto the laptop to upload) and waited for the madness to begin. And it never did! The squall - front and back still clearly defined - passed in front of us, and we skirted around the back of it. Phew! We put back up the main and are now bouncing around in 16kts of wind, more or less on course. Forecasts that we've looked at show us in the only bit of wind in this area of the Atlantic, and it's not due to last - so I suppose we should be thankful for the push it gives us while we're in it.

A bit of calm would be nice though - the others all got going yesterday in the blistering sunshine and settled sea to do some laundry. The rails quickly filled up with drying clothes, so I said I'd leave mine till today. Hah! Like the swim, that ain't gonna happen.

Our fridge is looking emptier every day, as we plough through all the fresh food before it goes off completely. Conor used the last of the almost liquid bananas yesterday to make yet more banana bread - the first one was with Maltesers, then there was one with Lindt orange chocolate - not sure what flavours feature in the latest batches but they're all seriously yummy. The fruit nets in the saloon are down to the last few oranges, and some bizarre fruits that Denise picked up in Las Palmas that nobody can identify - they're properly disgusting when not ripe enough, and the messiest thing EVER to eat when ripe, but sooooo delicious. Once they're gone, it'll be down into the under-seat lockers for the tins and the jars. We still have some meat left in the "freezer" and lots of frozen veg (bought to try to keep the meat frozen). We had Mexican burritos for dinner last night courtesy of Anais, and as usual they were scrumptious.

Nearly radio net time again here, so I'll sign off for now.

From a very lively Endeavour (the boat, not the crew!) - over and out.

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