28/11/05 13.00. 

Folks,

What a couple of days.  As mentioned in the previous Diary, Dave ‘one hook’ Quinn landed a fish.  Dave may have exaggerated things slightly.  A fish I say, not a beast and his name was not Ivan.  A modest 3lb, it was successfully snared by the sickly pink squid lure.  Much excitement ensued.  Having photographed the catch for posterity and unable to identify its type, we decided that it should be returned to its natural environment.  Dave was commissioned to do the honours.  Manfully, he grabbed the threshing fish by the tail and attempted to launch it over the side.  However it slipped from his grasp mid throw and landed on the deck before crashing into the toe rail.  On the second attempt, it made it to the sea.  We subsequently learned that it was a decent dorado.  Anyway, it has learned a lesson – don’t mess with sickly pink squids and ‘one hook’ Dave.

The other bit of excitement came yesterday 27/11/05.  It was Dave’s birthday.  No less than 10 birthday cards arrived by post along with various gifts.  The sponge cake made by his godmother 2 weeks previously had long since been eaten but we were prepared.  An Orio cake in a box - hidden on board by Dave’s girlfriend Kathy.  Imagine the surprise when we opened it and found it contained the ingredients for a cake and not the cake pictured on the wrapping!  In any event. we rustled up a bag of Cadburys Roses, stuck on a piece of styrofoam with candles and did the traditional thing.  Photo attached. 

Late last night the wind died away to nothing and we decided to motor for 9 hours overnight.  This morning brought similar conditions, no wind and just the current carrying us along.  To make the most of things, we decided to take a swim.  Fantastic.  Four thousand metres of beautiful warm, clear waters and not a shark in sight.   

So here we are, going nowhere and all day to get there.  You can’t buy this sort of thing!

Jim.

28/11/83

Position 18.40N 23.37W