Short note on sailing as all's well.  Wind got up at about 1am and we have been reaching west ever since in winds of 13 - 25 knots.  Double reefed main and most of the headsail furled at the moment.  Sadie loves it and we have been doing 6.5 knots.

 

Weather update in from a guy in California.  We love technology ! - Rubbish and unsettled weather till Tuesday.  He's given us some routing info to help dodge the lows.  Trades due Tuesday and he wants us to go further south.

 

No boats sighted.

 

 

It's raining and has been for most of the day.  This is tropical rain.  We went south of the Tropic of Cancer yesterday so it is warm, but it has driven the crew below to read, sleep and in Tim's case to dig out the toolkit and install a lee-cloth to improve  sleeping conditions below.

 

Jez has now washed !  Taking the opportunity to throw buckets of salt water over himself in the cockpit and then rinse off under the rain water pouring off the boom.

 

Watch out Laura - The lack of activity has led to Ricky making plans to buy an exercise bike so you may need to be making room for this in the kitchen.

 

New Section for today - Natural History.

 

Since yesterday's dolphin sighting we have been fighting off nature with a stick !

 

Our story starts at about 9pm last night with the crew lounging in the cockpit playing cards in a pitch dark night using head-torches. (We haven't started on the pub quiz book yet Em).  There is plenty of phosferesence in the sea and we are watching brilliant flashes of it in  the wake and bow-wave whilst Tim tells us about his barefoot water-skiing exploits.   Then we see lots more flashes and realise that we have dolphins riding our bow wave.  When we say dolphins, we mean lots and we could see then as bright green dolphin shaped flashes as they kicked off the phospheresence.  They were peeling off away from the boat for about 25m then streaking back in looking like a bright green version of the torpedo track that you see in an old war movie. 

 

This had 3 grown men kneeling at the bow of the boat and squealing like children !  They were with us for 20 minutes and we tried to film them for you but with

a smartphone camera, all you get is a black screen and 3 very excited men swearing frequently.

 

Dave Smart - description from yesterday morning.  Small, black.  Short beak.  Small dorsal in middle of back.  Blowing as they surfaced and definately dolphins but not the flipper variety.

 

 

The next installment was at 10 this morning when we were visited by a new bird !  We are 500 miles from land so we are going to call it an albatross and wait for our readers to tell us different.  Description - Big with about 3 foot wingspan.  Wings were very long and narrow ( high aspect ratio ), cantilevered at the middle.  Pale brown top with pale underside.  Really long beak.  Small body, massive wings. Flew low over the waves and circled us a couple of times.

 

 

And at 11, the one we've been waiting for.  Tim looks out the back from inside the cabin and yells - Whales !   We pile into the cockpit and there they are.  100m astern 2 whales crossing slowly and blowing as they go - very cool !   We know someone will ask but we can only confirm big ( 10m plus ), big fins and massive plumes of water as they blew which was also pretty loud.

 

Thinking now that we should have brought a few books on birds and beasts out here ! 

 

 

 

 

We have had a couple of emails direct from people which is OK if you send text only (PLEASE - no attachments or pictures) but the best and easiest way to contact us is by text to our iridium phone.  We can't talk to you easily as it is set up for data but if you send us a text we will get it pretty much instantly and will respond in the blog.  We only have so many stories to tell each other and any news, gossip or questions are very welcome to keep us occupied when we are not reporting for "the nature channel".

 

To text.  Use the internet to go to     http://messaging.iridium.com

 

Our phone number is:  881631628956

 

Anyone with a message that cant be sent in multiples of 160 characters can pass it through Kathy, Laura or Emma who can email us (text only please).

 

 

The phone lit up with messages last night.  Thanks to all who wrote and here are some responses:

 

Em - You'd love the whales and dolphins.  Next time yo have to come too !

 

Lizzie - dissolving stuff sounds fun but I think film cub sounds better still

 

Mum Jen - Thanks for the Mersea weather forecast - Enjoy the football 

 

Mum Pat - Anthony and Cleopatra is too highbrow for this crew but glad you liked it.

 

Nick, Lucy, William, Katherine - Glad you are listening in.  Jez has been working the foredeck today for sail changes.  

 

Harv - Star Wars please.

 

Joe - Shoot on Sunday if you get the chance.

 

Emily - Hope your hair looks good and it sounds like you have been hard at work at Uni

 

Sue - Hi, we are doing fine.

 

Dave - answers above.  Stars awesome when there is no cloud.  Last couple of nights just really, really dark !  It's hot here and despite the rain I'm typing this in my swimming trunks.  And if you call that work then we are "working" too 

 

Rich Samways - No trades due till Tesday

 

Hi to our Italian readers.