Tremendous excitement just before bedtime (8.00 p.m. GMT or "boat time") the coke tin fish hit alarm rattled in earnest. At about the same time Skip found out that the last four days' Mailasail blogs were not being posted.
Doc (MA Oxon Phd etc etc), the Engineering Dept and Nav-man assembled all known weapons on deck to ensure our oceanic minnow did not escape. It turned out to be an 18" blue fin tuna, which, after a valiant attempt, succumbed to 3 grown alpha males' brutal beating. Shrimpy's stamping was particularly effective and gave a hint as the quality of the neighbourhood in which he were brung up. Skip offered us cautions regarding the use of axes on his after-deck, interspersed with blood-curdling oaths about what he was going to to the seller of his communication equipment. Throughout the whole incident, his head never lifted from under the chart table.
Meanwhile, on said after-deck, the beast-from-the-deep was filleted and moved to the fridge - burgers back in the freezer for another day.
Today dawned warm & fine - so much so that Engineering was tasked to enhance the sun shelter. A garden hammock was pressed into service and is still up one hour later despite Skip's predictable protestations of not wishing to skipper a Pikey boat. He did, however, spend 20 mins this morning removing the gusset from his swimming shorts (not the Villebrequins) to serve as a diesel filter. We think the sun must be getting to him too. There is no chance of diesel for 1,588nm. As those who have sailed on Juno will know, there is a plastic clip-top box on board for most things. There is now one marked "Really Useful Bits of Gusset".
Nav-man and Skip did a reconciliation of miles to go and miles run - the difference of which we hope they appreciate. We has logged 500nm since the Cap Verdes and approx 1,588nm since our journey began in Las Palmas. I guess that means we are sort of half-way. We have a massive chart that has Slipstream's old route and ours superimposed. Slipstream's route is in orange, ours is green - and more erratic.
We really hope you get this blog. We send it now into the void and are looking forward to a fishy lunch.
