28.55N 13.42W Today felt like perfect harmony thundering along
towards Lanzarote. Everyone has settled into their rotas and sleep
patterns and we are a ‘happy ship’. The sun has warmed up a bit and
everyone is pottering – Vic making copious amounts of tea for everyone,
cooking, cleaning, tidying, reading, snoozing and generally relaxing for the
first time. Michael has been recording his diary and fiddling with the fishing
lines, but still no fish – we laughed last night that most
fish aren’t used to seeing squid (our lure) whipping by at 11 knots in
front of their eyes!!
When I got up to the cockpit at 2200 last night the Twistle rig
was so dramatic – a massive square (two triangles on a floating rig) kept
parted by long poles raised up full of wind - it is an amazing attribute
– we surfed off a wave doing 11 knots last night! But the feeling of
roaring through the night with a huge wake behind us in the pitch black Atlantic Ocean was very scary. A bit like being in
one of those virtual reality buses at the fair which simulate heart stopping
situations like roller coaster rides in the dark!! We saw only one ship
in the night which had a green light on its side which means its starboard side
was nearest to us which means it was going away – red means it is coming towards
you and red and green together means it’s straight in front, coming
towards you. The moon rose at 23.45 a bright orange fireball rising up
behind us and the depth sounder suggested a large mammal keeping us company
below the bows – we thought we could feel it brushing up against us?
We had a ship on a direct collision course today in daylight –
Paul phoned him on the VHF and asked if he could see us and thankfully he could
and he changed his direction slightly to cross us port to port. Our combined
speeds were over 30 knots and it was with us in a few minutes – a good
reminder to keep watch…..
Foot note
Just arrived in Lanzarote safe and sound – Paul, Michael and
Bennett have been up all night so now a little relaxation ………..
