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Date: 30 Nov 2007 19:56:00
Title: 30 Nov - Day 14 Position at 16.00 hrs 20:45.9N 041:04.2W
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Day 14 Distance to Antigua  1196  nm (nautical miles).

Distance covered since yesterday at 16.00 - 148 nm. Average speed over 24 hrs = 6.2 kts

Yesterday evening turned out to be one of the best so far.  The moon did not rise until about 11.30 pm (our time UTC -2), the wind was behind us at about 10 kts and we were able to sit in the cockpit watching the millions of stars that are visible when there is no moon. At 7pm, we saw the most amazing shooting star that was so bright and long lasting that it was more like a firework streaking across the sky from left to right.

Later in the evening, a flying fish landed on the deck right by the cockpit coaming.  I had no idea what it was until I shone a torch where the noise was coming from and saw him struggling and jumping for survival.  It was his lucky night as Sam grabbed him and threw him back.  A second one later in the evening, was not so lucky and was still there in the morning with a very pained _expression_ on his face.

We seemed to have settled into the watch routine quite well now.  In fact I seem to be waking up just before I'm due to take over from Sam at midnight and again at   6am.

Morning dawned bright and sunny but with the usual threat of squalls from the towering cumulus nimbus that seem to be all around us.  One passed us just a couple of miles away with a rainbow from top to bottom and I managed to grab a quick photo - see below.

The best news of the day was an email from our friend Richard Williams, respnding to my plea for help with the 'fridge. Richard joined us as crew on the delivery trip from Sardinia to Gibraltar and is a whizz with electrics as he has his own electrical engineering company.  He suggested I check the voltage at the compressor to make sure there was no drop off in volts from the cable or the connection.  Sure enough there was a loss of about a volt and I reconnected the spare cabel that Richard had installed in Sardinia which runs direct to the battery rather than via the control panel.

Once connected, the 'fridge started running and is now back down to 9 degrees and the beers are chilling again.  Thanks so much Richard.  I owe you a cold beer or three.

Made a huge casserole with the last of our braising beef which has kept pretty well considering the problem with the 'fridge.  Threw in all vegetables that were beginning to look a bit tired. A large helping of red wine and a tin of mushrooms completed the concoction and I slammed the lid on the pressure cooker (a must for cruising) and we await the results. Potatoes are boiling as I write.

The sailing today has been downwind on port tack with pole and genny out to port but we can't quite make the course without pointing up wherby the genny starts to complain as the rollers flick us from side to side as they pass under the stern.  In the end, we decided to drop the pole, tack the genny over and head up.  Not a great success as the genny still didn't want to behave itself.  We held it for a few hours but in the end, reverted to the pole and genny on port and will hope to make up the cross track error tomorrow as a poled out genny is a much safer and quieter option for night sailing.

That's all for today folks. 'Til tomorrow.

Jon and Sam

Rainbow Squall Day 14

Glad that one missed us!

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