Today I celebrated my fifty-fifth birthday at sea. It began as soon as I stumbled out of bed to find the saloon festooned with decorations and a beach wrap hiding a pile of surprises on the dining table. We had to wait for Shmulik to wake before we could get the party started. I had a gift of eau de cologne, which could be a subtle message about personal hygiene, birthday cards to read out loud and an extremely sweet breakfast. Hi-calorie birthday breakfasts being a tradition in the Slaney home.

The table was laid with Italian pannetone cake, two kinds of Spanish 'Tourron', chocolate covered nuts and sugar coated fruit pastels. If one of his staff had rushed in with a spread like this instead of dialing 101 for the ambulance, Ariel Sharon would still be prime minister.

(Photos on board by Gabriella)

The first attempt at serving coffee ended up all over the floor as the yacht was hit by an exceptionally large wave. Listening to the cruiser net after breakfast I heard several other boats mid-Atlantic complain about the sea state. For the past forty eight hours the usual swell has been augmented by a different pattern of waves from the north making us quite uncomfortable. I can only assume these waves are a distant echo of the storm we've seen in the weather data sweeping across the north Atlantic.

Also on the cruiser net I learned that I share my birthday with a sailor on board a yacht called Nyah.

Despite the rough conditions we continued the celebrations with a bottle of Cava and assorted seafood delicacies at lunchtime.

For most of the day we have been dodging a line of squalls; sudden rain showers often accompanied by violent and shifting winds. Our dodging was successful enough to get our laundry dry. Ahead of us 'Aquila', an American yacht we'd seen in La Palma and Mindelo reported losing their mainsail during a squall last night. Our damaged rigging so far is a destroyed batten car, a device that connects the mainsail to a track on the mast. I have a plan to fix it using a 'work-around' but need an hour of calm sea to make this possible.

Someone else has said that a sailor is happiest on two specific days. The day he buys a yacht and the day he sells it. Yesterday Gal Oren wrote to tell me that he has sold my half share in the yacht 'Settebello' which we have jointly owned from new in 2006. I'm happy that the sale is going through because having one and a half yachts ('You're a regular little Onnasis', quipped Shmulik) is an extravagance we don't need, but I'm also sad. I'm sad because Gal has been a fantastic partner and friend, and now we have one less thing to tie us together.

'Settebello' is a Dufour 40 Performance from the Italian designer Umberto Felci. We bought it to have fun, race and hopefully bring home some trophies. It was a success on all three counts. Sadly, Gal had other commitments and couldn't be with us for one of the best parts when coach Amnon Samagora led us onto the podium in 2009 to collect silver in the Rhodos Cup.

Gal, I hope you continue to have just as much fun on Settebello together with Shay and Dani.

Tomorrow night (Friday 00:30 Israel time) - Shmulik LIVE on Galatz again with Amnon Dankner and Odeia Koren 'Night Birds'. Live streaming at www.glz.co.il