Position 1200 UTC +0200hrs 9th December  15:13.00 N 53:52.00 W 

 

We’ve made slow but steady progress, hoping for a bit more wind but the sun has been shining and it was a lovely morning whatever the wind.  We had aspirations to swim in the mid Atlantic but even on a day like today with barely enough wind to fill the sails there is still a 3 metre swell.  Life aboard is relaxed but falls into a few routines mainly focussing on food and sleep.  Breakfast is usually cereal or fresh fruit salad eaten on deck with whoever is up and about which is rarely all of us at that time with crew sleeping after night watches.  Mornings are a good time to sort and stow rubbish, and clean and tidy when we can.  We are all together for lunch which is often a salad that people can help themselves to.  No danger of scurvy with those breakfasts and lunches.  Sometimes we play a short game of something in the afternoon or just relax and enjoy the sun when it’s out or practice our astro navigation.  We are all together for the evening meal which we like to eat when its still light.  We’ve even held back on some of our clock changes to give us more light in the evening at the expense of the morning. We usually have a quiz together early evening before the crew start to drift off to get some rest before their night watches.  We decided to gybe again today with the poled out jib.  We’ve not done that for around a week and last time it look nearly an hour.  We decided to time ourselves this evening and we started on Tuesday and it was still Tuesday when we finished we were happy.  Todays hot news is that Jennie caught a fish.  She insists it was a big fish.  During the morning she was given instruction by Anthony (hold this end of the rod and let the line out).  Ok so there was a bit more to it than that.  Around lunchtime a mahi mahi took the bait and she expertly reeled it in and it was retrieved to the deck where it was appropriately dealt with.   We’ve less than 400 miles to go now but very light winds are making it a bit difficult to predict when we are likely to get there but probably Friday morning.  We’ve had a few propeller issues over the last 24 hours.  We got vibration a couple of times and then reduced engine power.  We managed to free off the prop with some reverse gear but noticed that the prop wasn’t folding properly when not in use.  As conditions were favourable we managed to lash a waterproof camera to the boat hook and lower it over the side to inspect below the waterline.  We found a trail of what looked like weed and rope being trailed although there seems no obvious adverse effect at the moment.  A big thanks to Neil (Richie’s brother) who sent us 8 translations (and the Race Control Reports) for carrots should we need them.  Unfortunately the only boat we passed today was from Norway, which wasnt on the list, so we are still carrotless.