Baby Blue Blog - Friday 18th November 2016

Baby Blue
Baby Blue Holdings
Fri 18 Nov 2016 12:19
Hi All,

A few important events from yesterday…

Zander caught a small Mahi Mahi and threw it back because it was too small - it was grateful but it means me and Josh had to cook a beef sweet and sour last night.

The beef resembled the sole of my boat shoe but the sauce and vegetables were acceptable which narrowly avoided a mutiny!

Update: Zander since caught another even smaller Mahi Mahi (they like the fishing lure from the Stockhausen boys!) but sadly it didn’t survive so we are now using it for bait (though, worryingly, Mahi Mahi is the favourite snack for a Blue Marlin!).

Water water everywhere and nary a drop to drink - the interminable agony of thirst and loneliness… and it’s only day two!

Andy Pocock (First Mate) is being a pain always asking ‘what you doing?’, in his cheery Italian accent, whenever he sees anyone doing anything - I’m sure that won’t get tiring as the trip continues...

Zander spends his time between fishing and ’tinkering’ with our rather unreliable satellite communications system (which we need to get weather updates!), Dave is on the helm, Andy Sawyer (Skipper) and Josh (Rip Van Winkle) have been mostly asleep having eaten something that disagreed with them on Cape Verde (not the cooking on board!), though this morning the pair of them are in fine fettle! Miguel enjoys reading. All in all we are in good spirits!

Yesterday was our first full day at sea and we made some good progress learning how to fly the parasailor in very light winds. In the evening, we brought the parasailor down and set the sails for night time sailing - 'goose winged’ (one sail on each side) which is what we have been using this morning. 

Despite our excellent start (we were second or third across the start line), light winds have slowed our initial progress. For those of you tracking us online don’t be disheartened! Most of the other boats have been using their motors significantly for the first two days (whereas we only used around 3.5 hours). Motoring incurs significant time penalties so the current rankings will be adjusted after we meet the race officials in Saint Lucia (the firs leg was won by a racing boat that arrived more than 12 hours after we did in Cape Verde but he didn’t use his engine at all!).

We have now completed 250 Nm (out of a total of 2,090 Nm) and are more than 1/10th of the way there (life on board requires that we celebrate each little milestone). The wind is steadily strengthening and Baby Blue is now averaging 7 Knots (we were averaging around 5 Knots before).

This morning sees some rain squalls around which we hope to miss.

Danny and Alexander
Co-authors of the Baby Blue Blog