It was a Roller Coaster ride last night. Lots of rain and up to 35 kt squalls but we are still making good progress – 450 miles to go!  Jock, on his watch, managed to skirt round one and avoid it. Whilst in my case I got a thorough soaking for about 20 minutes. Mike experienced a complete fall off in the wind for periods of his watch, so we experienced everything – and didn’t get much sleep.

I have updated you from time to time on our food situation. But what, you might ask, happens to all the rubbish?

Yes, a good question and it’s quite a conundrum on a boat this size. We are trying to be very environmentally friendly which means only chucking out card/paper as that breaks down in the sea and glass which sinks and again breaks up at the bottom eventually (sand to sand, etc, etc) Everything else we are keeping for disposal at the other end. There’s lots of it, particularly plastic bags and wrapping and foil. Even bottle tops are binned as they have plastic in them to seal the top.

But where to put it all?  Well, I had a great idea for this. At the stern of the boat is the rear anchor locker which is completely sealed from the rest of the boat. It is under the bathing platform. Sea enters freely and drains from this so it is a cool location as well. Perfect, or so I thought! Into a black bag went the first 5 gash bags from week 1 and into the locker. In went the 5 gash bags from week 2 similarly. Only I then recently discovered that the anchor had moved about in the squalls and had ripped the both the black bags (far too flimsy anyway) and their contents. Not only this, but some of the disgusting mess, mainly tea leaves and eggshells, had blocked the drain hole. So the water level was up to the top (about 6 ins above sea level) with this positively revolting cocktail of yuck circulating around inside.

Well obviously it had to all be cleared out and in as an environmentally friendly way as possible (i.e. the easiest solution of just chucking it all over was to be avoided). Not even as heartless a skipper as me could bring myself to require the crew to undertake such an unwholesome task. So, you’ve got it, yours truly did it himself. And the rear anchor is now in the sail locker where it should be safe from causing further havoc.

Yours Truly - with a really up market 'Surrey' gash bag on its way to the stern                   A squall with much rain underneath this morning. It missed us!

Happy Sailing, we expect to be arriving at St Lucia on Monday…………………