36:40.000n 48:56.470w

Distance to home:  2280 miles

Distance run today:  101 miles  

Course 090

The definition of ocean sailing appears to be ‘fixing things in exotic locations’……

Our next waypoint on the GPS is Horta, Azores and this morning we passed a milestone as we are now within 1000 miles of it!

Domestic

Tim had peculiar moment with the AIS when it picked up a ship 95 miles away, usually the system reaches approximately 25 miles! It was exciting enough to wake Jez and show him or maybe to prove he wasn’t going mad!

Yesterday afternoon the wind filled and brought the rain with it! We enjoyed a simple meal of spaghetti with tomato vegetable sauce for dinner where we were once again put the test of eating our meals at 30 degrees.  No beer was drunk on the basis that we already had problems staying upright

We came across not one, but two yachts yesterday evening! A German 60 ft yacht was off our stern for sometime but we were unable to contact them. Once we had a fiddle with the aerial cables at the mast head (more fixing things in exotic locations) we were able to converse clearly with yacht ‘Viento’, an American 50ft yacht. They were not part of the ARC fleet and had left Bermuda on Tuesday, but Wills was more interested to find out what they were having for dinner and enjoyed a light hearted conversation about the luxuries on board. Tuscan chicken was their choice for the evening and they were going to invite us over but realised there may have been some difficulty in doing so with a 20 knot breeze and some swell! Doug, from ‘Viento’ also joked about having some interesting ‘X Rated’ after dinner entertainment planned. All very amusing and nice to hear from another yacht as up until now it has just been 150 metre tankers who probably think we are all mad to be out here !

Wills used the time while it was raining wisely last night as he dressed for the occasion in full oilies, minus wellies of course, and set about collecting the water running off the mainsail. We have plenty of drinking water on board so there was no need to top up although it did taste great!  By hanging the bucket on the end of the boom he was able to collect around 7 or 8 litres, which he plans to have a fresh water shower with at some point! What a treat!

Sailing

Flukey winds through the night but we kept it together and kept the sails up.  The wind died this morning leaving us with fairly big seas and no wind which was really uncomfortable for a while we dropped sails and thought about what to do next.  By “thought about what to do next” we mean “drank tea”.

We paid for this slothful attitude by getting the main halliard wrapped round the radar reflector which was a bugger to sort, but we got there eventually and started motoring.

An hour later, the South Westerly winds we had been expecting kicked in so it was back to sails and we are now back to 6 knots on a broad reach which suits both us and the boat fine.

Natural History

Dolphins! Five visits in total now! Jez stood on the pulpit in the rain and enjoyed peering down at them as they played in the bow wave for several minutes. Later as the waves were building we watched several come bounding from behind jumping clear over the waves to come say ‘Hey’. We joked about how they always give the look of being happy and playful but maybe they’re intentions are completely the opposite and they are viewing us as potential food! 

Today’s responses  

All – keep the texts coming they are very welcome here and free to send.

Grandma (Ketch) – Hi Grandma! Your test message worked fine, hope you are having a lovely time with Mum, I’m sure your patio is looking lovely with all the pots planted up! xxxx

Mum (Jan) – Sorry to say but other than Auntie Leslie and Uncle John, I don’t know any of those other 10 names you mentioned but sounds lovely all the same! Glad the weather is nice! xxxx

Richard Allen – Re. Go Pro, that’s the method I have been using anyway, don’t have a card reader with me. Am I right in thinking that it will delete all existing memory if I say ‘yes’ to formatting it? It’s not the end of the world; we will just have to wait until we are home to see any of the footage!

Barry / Richard – Thanks for F1 updates but who won ?

Emily – Glad to see you are getting some open water swimming in, in readiness for Saturdays mini tri.  Hope you had a nice lunch at Gran’s today and a good ride home.

Dave S – Black Capped Petrel possible as has white rump but underside only.  36 inch wingspan probably too much.  More like 24 to 30.  Annoyingly, none sighted lately we are back to what we think are Madeiran Storm Petrels – Large chunky swallows with white triangle on topsides above tail.  Awash with dolphins …  more this morning but only fleeting and all of same type so far.

Gran (Jen) – Thanks for the football scores and Mersea sailing update. News updates welcome.

Emma – I’ve always got more wind !  We discussed Chablis with the Yankie boat yesterday but we can’t match your Prosecco consumption.  Beer with lunch today in the sunshine.

Bye for now

Sadie