16:27.6N 35:42.3W

Fri 24^th & Sat 25^th Dec

Thursday was a fairly straightforward day as we made reasonable speed and managed a pretty good course as the wind swung from east to north east and back several times. This forced us to keep changing the headsail configuration but at least kept us from getting too bored.

Highlight of the day was spotting a breaching humpback whale in the distance behind us, sadly not close enough for a photo, but pleasingly far enough away not to present any threat either!

The night was pretty quiet again and we struggled to keep the headsail working and eventually opted to simply put it away and sail with just a slightly reefed main. This worked surprisingly quite well and we were able to hold a good course and keep pace with S-F who were about 5 or 6 miles ahead of us under full sail.

Christmas day started with special gift for Steve on S-F from Neptune (working on Santa’s behalf?) as he got the shock of his life in the early hours when he was struck by a flying fish. Chris was furious, not because of the scales in the cockpit as it thrashed about, but because Steve had shouted out loud in his shock and surprise, waking her up......

Christmas day dawned bright and sunny and a bit windier and rougher than forecast which made setting a table for Xmas lunch a non starter on Serafina.  We exchanged presents which was embarrassing for me as Sarah had gather a whole bag of goodies together for me, though admittedly mostly joke presents. (She got a lot of pleasure blowing bubbles that are probably still floating somewhere just above the waves in the Atlantic.)

Lunch was a real treat with some beautiful steaks (rather more practical than turkey) and baked apple with mincemeat for pud. We spoke to Tom, Ewan and my brother David on the Sat phone and received quite a few nice emails and also a very welcome incoming phone call from Robert and Joyce who had got home safely on Tuesday despite all the weather.

Using just our reefed main sail set on a very broad reach, we stayed around 6 miles behind S-F all day and so we decided to keep this set up through the night as it was very simple and quiet and ensured that we stayed in touch with them. What has changed slightly is the size and height of the underlying Atlantic swell. The ordinary waves are coming from the ENE roughly with the wind as you would expect, but the huge swell is running down from the north and slightly north west direction. These rollers are immense and when Serafina bobs to the crest of each one you can see enormous distances laid out like vast scooped fields, across the ocean, but in the troughs there is nothing but the long sweep and a wall of water approaching you from the north and the back of the last wave dominating and obscuring the view to the south. So we can only see S-F when we both rise on the crests of different waves at the same time.

The wind became very patchy on Saturday night and ranged from 3 knots to bursts of 18 knots, but it was the very low winds that create the most problems as in the big swell, the sail and spars crash and shake as we wallow and slop around, barely making any way at all – and irritating the hell out of Sarah who was mainly on watch at these times.

On Sunday morning dawn revealed a huge mass of black clouds and the radar confirmed that we were going to get wet. The rain duly arrived along with 25 knots of wind which picked us up and got us flying along again.

Emails with news from anyone would be welcome to break up the day! Please only send to rob@ the usual address or you can always use the ‘contact us’ form on the website www.rhbell.com .