18:05.8N 50:19.4W

When reading about crossing the Atlantic in a yacht a common theme is the constant rolling motion of the boat. As a result we had expected to find this much worse than we have experienced so far. When running with a constant wind it is inevitable that a swell will build from behind and rock the boat as each wave passes by. However we found the rolling much worse when sailing down the west coast of France, Spain, Portugal and Morocco where the waves were often coming from a different direction to the swell rolling in from the Atlantic. I suppose that with the big area of low pressure having passed through and the wind taking its time to re-establish over a flat sea then conditions might be calmer than at other times.

One consequence of using all the gear and sail settings I have described is that we are using far more lines to control it all than we are used to. We don’t have enough winches and jammers to hold and quickly adjust every line. We will now review which lines need to be on a winch, which in a jammer and which can be tied off on a mooring cleat. A quick scan yesterday evening suggested that some of the lines will need to be re-run back to the cockpit and more pulleys deployed to run them through.

Annie’s father was a keen fly fisherman and has passed some of his enthusiasm on to Annie (and in turn Alex) and she has been looking forward to eating fresh fish. We achieved this with the Wahoo off Cape Verde but nothing since and we have lost the two lures sold to us in the Canaries that were supposed to guarantee success. However, when buying all the new fishing gear we were given a squid lure that looks rather like an enormous trout fly and that, unweighted, is to be drawn along the surface of the water. We of course scoffed at the idea of fly fishing in the middle of the Atlantic but when you have lost every other lure then needs must. The lure was set and could been 100m or so behind the boat running through the surface of the water as intended. After a while our attention to the lure lapsed and we became distracted by other more pressing tasks. I was within 10 minutes of serving up our Thai vegetable curry supper when a cry from the cockpit suggested something was on the end of the line. Hoping it was a lump of weed I switched off the cooking and joined Annie. She and Steve could see something turquoise and silver flashing in the water behind and were convinced we had caught a fish. When most of the line had been reeled in it went slack and Annie announced that we had lost whatever it was and no doubt the lure also. And then there it was, a huge Dorado right at the back of the boat and still attached. Now, at this point the full enormity of what was happening sank in. This thing would have to be got up into the boat and dispatched. For two doctors having sworn the Hippocratic oath this proved to be something of a dilemma. Steve’s solution (bearing in mind he had presented us with an engraved mallet for dispatching tuna) was to retire to the other end of the boat and play loud music through earphones. Annie’s was rather more pragmatic and we hope the fish accepted her profuse and tearful apologies whilst being bashed over the head with her father’s proprietary metal cosh. Now, this cosh may have been just the job for a half pound rainbow trout but it took the full weight of the mallet to finish off the Dorado (wielded by yours truly). So, vegetable curry became fish curry and truly delicious it was! Half the fish is in the ‘fridge for another meal and it looks like cold Dorado, Thai style, for lunch today.

The rowers in Ocean Reunion are still maintaining an incredible 70 miles a day. We were sent some information about the four guys and and they appear to be human, "but not as we know it Scotty”. One is an endurance coach, one recently attempted the record for rowing across the Indian Ocean, one does Iron Man Races and one is a semi professional sportsman. The logistics of sustaining these four in a small rowing boat for several weeks is the source of much discussion on Vega. Yesterday we estimated a rendezvous around late afternoon today. We have picked up speed since then and are actually going twice as fast as a rowing boat we may need to plan the timing carefully so as to be in daylight. Lots of position updates for them please!!

Ps apart from forgetting to post the 1200UT position yesterday we also had a glitch with the Iridium that wouldn’t set the correct status to operate. Not sure why this was or even what it means but it came back on after a few hours. If this happens again please don’t be alarmed, it is one reason why it may not be anything other than failure of the communications system. It looks like we will arrive in Antigua on Sunday.