Voyage to Verde Islands - Day 7

Stargazer of Southampton
Susie and Adam (both think they are skipper)
Sat 18 Dec 2010 07:32
 
18:12.10, 18:49.50N 22:02.61W
 
Great sailing up until about 2 o'clock this afternoon when the wind stopped, at least it came back to an extent in the evening but only 5 extremely lightlThe only benefit of this was that we were able to test our 'Super Solar Shower' (that's what it says on the bag - it is basically a black bag with a hose on that you leave in the sun to heat the water) on the deck, miles from anywhere - if anything we had left it in the sun a bit long and the water was rather warm.  Although there are no waves as such - there are the large rolling hills of swell which also added fun but not grace to the mid-atlantic outdoor showering experience with shower bag hoisted above on the mast.  The watermaker has been busy today filling the tanks up again though so we may opt for an indoor shower next time.
 
Some good highlights today though - when we were sailing this morning we saw loads of flying fish - the boat must scare them into flight and we saw groups of probably up to 100 fish at a time flying off across the water - they go a pretty long way too.  But more impressive still Adam spotted a large whale breaching - not sure of the type of whale, but after book studying we think it was possibly a Brydes Whale, they are baleen whales with the right colours and size and breach by jumping straight up out of the water then flopping down again with a huge splash, it did this several times but it was behind us so we got further and further away (sorry Dad - I wasn't quick enough with the camera - too busy watching).  it was also large - we think about half of it left the water an that looked around 5 - 6 metres.  Hope we see some more.
 
Slow progress being made as there isn't much wind - but we're getting there.