Atlantic Crossing - Shark Waters

Stargazer of Southampton
Susie and Adam (both think they are skipper)
Fri 31 Dec 2010 10:07
31:12.10, 15:31.520N 28:50.393W
 
Good progress being made, not always in the exact direction we want to go, but we're pretty much where we hoped to be by day 2.  John and Alex set off on Freespirit about an hour before us and have been in sight up until the middle of last night and we're in radio contact with a couple of yachts.
 
Much excitement at sunrise yesterday morning, it was my watch so I was sat at the helm seat at the back of the boat, nothing much was happening - then the duogen (metal pole with a propellor on it that we trail in the water just behind the boat to generate power) jerked violently a couple of times, I assumed it was a wave coming side on and catching it. . . .  then it did it again. . .  and again. . . I turned around to check that the bolts that allow it to pivot were set ok - and at that point saw the reason for the strange duo-gen behaviour, a large shark appeared out of the blue and bumped it again a couple of times, it must have been trying to work out if it was edible.  It usually takes me about 5 attempts to lift the duogen out of the water as it is heavy so had to call for Adam to get it out as I didn't really want the shark trying to find out what else was edible on Stargazer - he hoisted it out (without a shark attached to it) -  it is missing a bit of paint and the connector that allows you to stop it pivoting has broken - not sure if that is directly shark related or not!!
 
That's the main news,  the usual dolphins and flying fish have been about in numbers.   Sea is a bit choppy today but we're making good speed - we covered almost 100 miles over night last night.