Day 6 and we are over half way home. The low that we have been sailing in is collapsing and with it the wind. On a warm, sunny day with a flat sea there has been enough breeze for us to sail at around 3.6kts, less than predicted but more than the two knots that would normally be the trigger for motoring. We enjoyed the gentle conditions until 1430 when it rained from a cloud directly overhead and therefore unseen above the bimini but with bright sunshine all around. The wind died completely so we furled the genoa, started the engine and were about to lower the mainsail when a light breeze returned and we compromised for the rest of the afternoon by motorsailing. Tonight the wind has died completely and we are motoring across a glassy smooth sea.

To celebrate the beautiful conditions we prepared food and listened to music. Too late to save the tomatoes that were doing their rapid turn to mush trick despite being in the ‘fridge I made a humungous coleslaw for lunch and enough to last through the pending rough conditions. We had this along with Portuguese cheese and pitta bread from Antigua that I considered perfectly edible but which Annie considered fit only for the fish. Annie baked bread and chocolate. brownies - both delicious comfort foods for those long passages. Frittata for supper with potato, onion and chorizo.

The music was Beethoven’s late string quartets, considered by some (Beethoven lovers in particular) to be the finest music ever composed. Beethoven, like olives and sprouts, is an acquired taste. You have to have experienced life to fully understand Beethoven but when you have the human condition is laid bare by his music. All the pathos, frustration, uncertainty but sheer joy of life are exposed. The late quartets are the only music at a live concert that has moved me to tears. I was going through a traumatic period in my life at the time and Beethoven really hit the spot. Actually, the final scenes of Schindlers List with that haunting violin melody and in a similar vein the final scenes of Saving Private Ryan have also brought on public scenes of personal sobbing but that is an intended consequence of two brilliant films. I imagine that Beethoven’s profound deafness and unhappy (unfulfilled) personal life were key drivers for his genius to express itself but the world is immeasurably enriched as a result.