Its Monday 5^th December.  In keeping with our routine we had bacon and egg on toasted baguette for brunch, today.  They were the best – bacon rolls and coffee, reminiscent of Grizzly Bears until the Health Authorities closed it down.   Its amazing how important routine and small pleasures become under these circumstances.

All watches through the night passed uneventfully.  It was a very clear sky with the new moon only lasting a couple of hours at the beginning of the night.  This allowed the stars to reign supreme with Orion and the plough acting as key locator points.  It looked like it was snowing in heaven, so many were the stars.  Additionally, we had the now routine pleasure of watching shooting stars streaking across the sky. Other than that we were alone.  There was not another craft of any sort within visual range, just us and a very large ocean.  In fact we have not seen another craft since Friday last nor have we managed to raise anyone on the VHF.  For sure, the SSB sqawks with traffic, but then its range is significantly further.

Sunrise occurred at 0900 this morning. Another spectacular event.  One of the highlights of every day is sunrise and sunset.  Every one is different and everyone is fantastic.  We still work on UTC time even though in reality we are now some 2 1/2 hours behind Greenwich.  However for the purposes of communications and the ‘watch’ system it is convenient to stick with UTC.

Today is another bright sunny day with a favourable ENE wind pushing us along at a cracking pace towards St. Lucia.      We get hit by squalls infrequently.  Though they pass quickly and do not last long.  However, as we travel westwards they will become more and more frequent and prevalent.

On that note its time to go make the daily water, which is very different to taking the pi**.  More on that later.

Ben

10.00

15.01N 042.09W

PS  Photo attached of a more successful fishing day!