Surrounded

Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Sat 28 Nov 2009 17:10
Today at 1400 we are at 16:21.64N 044:44.8W and we are surrounded by empty horizons, and have been for many many days now. The last day was the biggest run we have had to date with a single 4 hour watch (Craig & Murdo's) turning in 41 miles. The daily run was 236 miles and for the moment the 240 mile day still eludes us and will until we have some free wind.
 
Since our departure from Gran Canaria I dont believe we have had a single time when we have had free wind and we have only had a day and a half when we could actually point at our waypoint though we were still tight down wind and not freed. Surely we can have one day before we arrive when we can sail our course freely.
 
Our ETA for Antigua is now Saturday 5th December a day later than we originally planned. We are not fishing as we are sailing too fast (between 9 and 10 knots normally). However the flying fish have turned into kamikaze's and one landed last night under the sprayhood inside the cockpit - a leap of about 2m high and 4m long - quite impressive!
 
Tonight is Saturday night so we are all going down to the pub. There is a curry and quiz night on with volunteer mixed DJ's. We will finish the evening we think with a traditional punch up at closing time................. This will inevitably be over the much interpreted and re-interpreted sailing statistics. Speaking of which we have now done 8 200 mile plus days in a row! A total of 1777 miles sailed. Seven of these days were after we turned west from our Cape verde waypoint. For these seven days we sailed 1575 miles and made 1155 towards our Antigua waypoint. Can we do TEN 200 milers in a row?
 
Assuming there are no arrests tonight after our night in the pub we will speak tomorrow.