Latitude 11 07.095N ; 43 19.970W Wednesday 14 December 2022, day 13 at sea

It was a good day yesterday, 136nm run, in the right direction, and Alpha Whiskey. We had a productive afternoon reprogramming the Blamar alternator regulator (who knew we had one of those?) but as our new alternator is a new design, high output alternator, and the output goes via the engine battery into a battery to battery (B2B) unit to then charge 600A of lithium…… it is the thing to have! We were congratulating ourselves on a job well done and took our sundowners, a tot of the promised rum, into the cockpit at I8.00, along with a wee tot for himself, King Neptune. Greg said a few words along the lines of….. ‘ King Neptune, thank you for your benevolence so far, and getting us safely to the half way point, and please can this continue so we get safely to the other side, cheers!’ And I poured the tot of rum into the swirling sea :) we said cheers and had a swig.

Just at this point Greg looked to the starboard horizon and said ‘ a ship, and he’s coming our way!’ We haven’t seen any ships or yachts since ‘Hannah Penn’ sailed silently past our stern on the night of day 3, so this was a big thing! We immediately put on our navigation screen and saw the ship, still some 7 miles away was called ‘Kaspar Oldendorff’, a tanker, bound for Brazil, on track to cross our bow. This cause some hilarity amongst the crew (possibly linked to Neptune’s tot?) as we thought it sounded like a Harry Potter name, we immediately went into ‘Sorting Hat’ mode trying to place the ship into it’s correct Hogwarts House; we decided it must be in Grifindor! But, please feel free to disagree ;’)

The only issue was as the ship got closer, our system showed the CPA (Closes Point of Approach….  or attack as I call it) of said ship was a bit too close for comfort! Top marks to the skipper who had a very professional conversation via VHF radio, ‘Kaspar Oldendorff, Kaspar Oldendorff, Kaspar Oldendorff this is sailing yacht, Blue Argolis, Blue Argolis over’ with the ‘Officer of the Watch’ on about his intentions for passing, without laughing, unlike his rowdy crew! But, the rum must have put the skipper in a good mood, as despite the fact in open sea, steam still gives way to sail, Greg very surprisingly offered to hold station and even back our head sail to slow down and let Kaspar pass. It’s the little things that keep you amused when you’re in your own little bubble at sea!

We’re still making good speed and direction….. now only 949nm to Barbados….. yesterday’s run 136nm and todays set to be about the same. Weather forecast next few days also encouraging…. The only thing is we are having doubts about Barbados, as it doesn’t offer much for the cruising yacht? So we may, if we have time, sail past to one of the Windward islands? To be continued…..

Yours aye

Greg and Sue xx