17:12.9N 030:55.9W

Well it’s the other Peter here.  Skipper is on watch right now which gives me a chance to send out a quick update - he imposed strict ratio silence this morning barring the crew from using the VHF radio after discovering that the had the right to this.  He only just managed to avoid a mutiny - I’m sure he said l last night that everyone should swim in the mid-Atlantic once in their life.  Early this morning, at the beginning of our third day motoring it was dead calm.

The water temperature was 26.6° - or other words the perfect moment to turn the engine off and enjoy.  It was as if we were on an idyllic tropical island, well we were apart from the land - and who wouldn’t go for a swim on a tropical island.  Who? Hydrophobic Skipper.  He just wouldn’t take the hint.  Don’t we need to stop to check the engine?  Doesn’t the water look inviting?  Even, shouldn’t we stop to scrub the bottom of the boat?  Nothing worked.  Only when he overheard the word ‘mutiny’ and our discussion of how best to setup the plank for him did he capitulate.  He even seemed to enjoy it in the end:

It was a short break, we have spent the day chasing down Ian and Glenda on Lucy Alice and given that we are only traveling at 1 knot more than then every minute counts.  They have finally appeared on AIS - 7 miles off.

So what else is there to report.  At lunchtime we put our clocks back to GMT-2 and tonight we have our Time Change Party when we can celebrate with our freshly brewed ginger beer*.  In general we are eating well - still on fresh food on day 9 and supplies are generally holding up well.  Here is lunch today:

Lettuce, Tomato, Avocado, Celery, Cress* and Basil* salad.

Potato Salad

Bean Sprout Salad*

Salami and Cheese

Galley-made bread*

Just an typical light lunch on boat this luxury yacht.  And just to prove it here is the salad Skipper prepared yesterday:

Walnut, Avocado, Lettuce salad with yogurt* (made on board) and sweet chili dressing.

You can probably tell we have too much time on our hands and long for more interesting weather - even the squalls we had 3-4 days ago.

But we have had a couple of splendid sunset.

And discovered that there really are some fish in the sea:

Even if we can’t catch them.  So far fishing we have lost 3 lures but have not landed anything.

BREAKING NEWS: ENGINE OFF

After 2 1/2 days there is finally silence.  We are sailing again - at the modest speed of 3.5 knots.  That’s already up from 3.0 so there is hope we will be in St Lucia for the New Year (don’t panic, I’m only kidding).

That’s all for now,

The Galley Slave

.........

ENGINE IS ON.......