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 ………..