Day 4 / 18:00

Rhapsode
Wed 17 Sep 2008 17:51
31:38:00N 11:13:00W
 
17th September 2008.
 
I never thought how grateful I would be to the inventor of shock-cord. Without it to fix the engine we would have been going backwards today. The wind has been non-existent and we have now been motoring non-stop since yesterday morning. The sea has been glassy with not a breath of wind and even the Canaries current had got confused and was actually against us for most of the last 24 hours. As I write a whisper of a breath of wind has arrived from the northwest. Odd that since the forecast was for light easterlies. But this was from the Spanish Met Office who also put the Canaries to the northeast of the Sahara on the morning forecast! Still, we won't quibble - the genny is up and is looking hopefully to the northwest.
 
The current has also sorted itself out and is now in its' proper place pushing us gently southwards.
 
My morning wake-up calls are beginning to show a pattern - on  Monday it was the alternator breaking that got me out of my bunk, on Tuesday it was the tear in the sail and today it was the sudden stopping of the engine. Michael heard a ping and thought that perhaps the shock-cord had broken so stopped the engine. Quite right too! I woke up as the engine revs came down shouting 'engine, engine!'
 
I later discovered that the ping was a locking nut on the helmsman's seat falling off!!!
 
No wonder the crew staged a mutiny when confronted with an irate captain who had finally worked out that he had been dragged out of sleep's sweet dreams each day by a contrived morning crisis!
 
Would it be too much to ask to be brought a nice cup of tea in bed and told 'everything's fine dad, why don't you stay in bed for another hour?'
 
The morning swim was sensational. The water was so clear and blue - perfect visibility and the temperature was just right. If we hadn't a deadline to meet (A celebration dinner washed down with the finest of Lanzarote wines on Friday night) we would have stayed in longer. I had a look at the chart afterwards and saw that the nearest land was two miles directly beneath us!
 
It's been a tough afternoon. There was nothing else to do other than laze out on deck in the sunshine. Michael says I could become professional since I do it so well.
 
I think I'll get that plank out again, sharpen my trusty cutlass and throw some bait to attract the sharks, the cheeky wotsit!
 
I wonder whether they will like a tin of beans? They're certainly not getting my pork pies!