It's 0930, and our position is 43 12N, 17 51W
A quick e-mail, as I need to get some sleep, and we are having to run the
engine a lot to charge the batteries. We thought we had real electrical
problems, but it looks like it was just that we were running too much
stuff - 25W tricolour bulb, plotter with GPS and colour screen, another GPS,
VHF radio, stereo, fridge - no wonder the poor batteries couldn't cope.
So, the last 48 hours have been full of interest. It started mid afternoon
on Monday, when Mark was steering and I was on deck, when the patch of ocean
I was looking at, just off the port bow and about a boat length away turned
into blubber. No, I wasn't halucinating - it was a whale, and it was a bit
too close for comfort. It disappeared, then another appeared just beyond it,
and again very close on the port side. This time we saw its backbone arch
through the water, I yelled at Mark to come up (turn left), and he got
confused and turned in the opposite direction, but either way we missed it
again. We were hugely relieved when the two whales passed safely and
continued on their way, surfacing to blow air out of their lungs.
We've also had other wildlife - a bird that flew around the boat a few
times, had a rest for a while on various points, then flew off, and
dolphins.
Sailing wise, we were broad reaching with the jib top up (a smashing sail)
on Sunday night, then we hoisted the AP spinnaker at dawn on Monday. We flew
the kite all night on Monday, which was hard work, and in the afternoon the
wind died and the sea calmed, so we changed to a lighter kite, and held this
until sunset. Last night was hard sailing - there was no moon and no stars,
and helming with the kite up was a nightmare. Mark relieved me at midnight
and woke me up an hour later to drop the kite and help fix our complete lack
of electrical power (solution - switch everything possible off).
We are eating well, and have just had "first breakfast" which is porridge.
We've been following this with "second breakfast", which has been bacon and
eggs, then sandwiches for lunch, cake mid afternoon and cooked meals for
dinner. I feel like one of the hobbits in Lord of the Rings.

Deb.