Ship sighted.

Lochmarin
Tue 8 Apr 2014 19:49
06:08.2S 099:11.5W

Well, we're well past a quarter of the way around the world now. Traveling at not much more than walking pace certainly gives you a sense of distance, although at night it's been overcast so the moon and stars haven't been there to give a sense of where we are in the world, or at least which way we're facing; we've seemed to be just bobbing along in an endless expanse of moving water.

The good bit about there being no moon or stars is that the phosphorescence shows so clearly. We look like Captain Hook's ship, after Peter Pan has stolen it and Tinkerbell has dusted it with fairy dust...

We've not touched a sail for three days; Sadie the wind self steerer keeps us nicely on course, only needing slight adjustment when the wind moves around a bit, we are happily moving along with the trade winds which are generally around 18 knots.

We've been contentiously keeping watch, scanning the horizon every 10 or 15 minutes although we'd seen no sign of human life since leaving Galapagos. I was on watch the night before last, nearly 5 days out. The watch was dragging, in fact my previous log entry had been: "All well. Killed a fly" and I was wondering if it was really worth all this looking out business, some people just go below and sleep, trusting to luck, but I stuck my head up to scan the horizon yet again - and there was a ship!! Ok, the closest it got was 6 1/2 miles away, but it made a change to see signs of human life out there and tracking it on the radar made the watch go much quicker.

The days are full of occupation; there are always little jobs and projects to work at, but at night, when it's hard to keep you eyes open, finding diversions can be more challenging. The kindle is a help, we can read using the built in little back light without losing our night vision, and I've found podcasts to be great for passing the time. My latest entertainment has been the discovery of the combination of ear phones and 'Finger Piano' on my iPhone. With a bit of practice I'll be two fingering "The Entertainer" with the best of them!

Food:

Day 4 cont.: supper turned out to be...beans on toast! And very yummy they were too.

Day 5: Scrambled eggs on toast; banana muffin and coffee at 11:30; which meant we weren't hungry for lunch so about 4pm we had jerk chicken and salad tortillas.

Day 6: Granola, banana and yoghurt; roast chicken with roasted veg, red cabbage and gravy; roasted veg again, with local Galapagos cheese and Tangier couscous.

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