Today is my Birthday and I have been showered by 11 shooting stars on my night-watch. The sky was amazingly clear and it was fantastic to be up and celebrate in this way. The 6^th shooting star was something I had never seen before, it blew up red and then bright electric green, like a firework falling into our atmosphere. At 02.30 hrs UTC I’ve put on Andrea Bocelli full blast, standing on the seats of the cockpit while singing along joyfully. Paul,  up for his watch now, joined me. It was magic and a very special way to start my birthday.

Yesterday the wind dropped and was all over the compass, so there was a lot of sail changing during the day, which interrupted our watches, as we need to be both working sheets and sails, so whoever is sleeping needs to get up. By evening we had been motoring, all through the night until at 05.00 hrs this morning the engine stopped dead. We used up all the diesel in the aft tank and have to conserve the fuel in the starboard tank for nearer land.

Since then we have been working all sorts of sails to get Kahia moving in very light winds. We were up and down, back and forwards on deck, using the cruising-chute several times, then the genoa goose-winged...pole in and out... off and on again, took the mainsail down to stop the bashing. Until 11 am we tried our best. Paul was still up since 02.30 hrs without a rest. So the flying yankee came out the bag (for the first time) and that’s it for now. Creeping at 2 knots we slowly move towards our destination 336 miles to go, waiting for the wind to pick up. Both poles out with a wind partly behind us and partly moving around.

To be becalmed is more tiring than being in gale force winds. Paul says ,it’s like being in the doldrums, which can drive sailors mad. But luckily we’ve got plenty of food, water and a good sense of humour to keep us going and we are happy to learn the art of patience.