19.21N 049.27W 20th May 2011
Mojo 2
Andrew Partington
Fri 20 May 2011 20:24
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Our feeling of Groundhog Day continued today with
our share of rain squalls to dodge again last night. One of them brought with it
27 knot winds but we were ahead of the game and dropped sails before it nailed
us.
The only thing to change was our pathetic 118NM
yesterday and our chart showing us to be frustratingly close to Antigua yet
still a few days away.
We sent Daniel up the mast yesterday about
mid-morning because he refused to sign the Dockers Membership. He tried in vain
to restore us with a mainsail but unfortunately this was not to be. Got some
great photos though. Held a kitchen knife to the halyard holding him up but he
still refused to join sign the form.
Noticing more and more seabirds now which must mean
we are closing in on land. We have seen no birds in over a week so it was a
great relief to see them. In fact we have seen none of the wildlife that we saw
above the Canaries at all on this leg, a surprise to us all. We were
starting to feel that we may as well be the only people on the planet. Our
AIS has not picked up a ship since a couple of days out from Las Palmas and,
although we have been looking, there has been no sign of any other
sailing boats.
Daniel went for another plunge off the back of Mojo
2 today. He takes hold of the swim ladder [at 7 knots boat speed] whilst
standing and just throws himself over the stern. Holding tight he then surfs
along with us until he has had enough and then just lets the next swell pushing
in behind the boat to assist him back onto the stern. Lyn [the original water
baby] is visibly envious of this and tells him to stop showing off and just get
back aboard the boat.
Rough as guts again yesterday with a very confused
sea. Things are much better today and seem to be settling further. We are
currently still sailing with both the geneker and jib. If things go to script we
will no doulbt have to pull down the geneker as the wind picks up towards
evening
Thanks very much to Gerard Cameron who has been
keeping his eye on the weather for us. Gerard says he has become a "blogaholic"
and tells me there is another Fountaine Pajot catamaran somewhere behind us and
also heading to Antigua. By next week he will, I'm sure, be monitoring the
movement of all vessels in the Atlantic and casting one eye on the Pacific as
well.
At 7PM our time we are close to ticking over to
600NM to Antigua and we are travelling at 6 knots in 13 knots of
wind.
Regards to all
Andrew Partington.
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