Friday 16th  March:  The South Pacific Ocean 08 10.2S 125 43.0W     

Today’s Blog by David  (Time Zone UTC-8 hours)

Errr …got something to say….Hmmm, what was it now? Oh yes, I remember……… HAPPY BIRTHDAY RICHARD!!!!!!!

(PS.  He doesn’t know that we know ….Not yet!)

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STOP PRESS – Japanese Fishing Boat in Pacific Ocean!!!

Yes – we saw it, the ‘Fujimori Osaya’ or something like that.  It is the first ship we have seen in ten days.  

It is not true to say it was the first boat though for, on Wednesday morning,  the dawn greeted us with a blue spinnaker sailing along about 4 miles away and fully 1.5 knots quicker than we were sailing.  Richard and I were on deck – experienced hands in these things, don’t you know -  and we quickly concluded that it could not be one of the World ARC fleet. Had he been so, and travelling that quickly, then he would already have been way, way ahead of us.  So we radioed on the VHF to exchange pleasantries only to be met with silence. So – because we were miffed he was sailing so quickly we radioed again to tell him and anyone else who happened to be listening that he had “a fender over the side” and wished him well on his way.   

Now, pointing out “a fender over the side” on a well found yacht is actually a very polite but withering  criticism of the seamanship of the vessel and crew concerned. It didn’t matter that they were ‘hull down’ below  the horizon,  four miles away so we couldn’t see the hull anyway – it made us feel better ……………. even if they weren’t listening! 

Perhaps they were listening because, about 5 minutes later the yacht radioed us, a Russian voice speaking heavily accented English, only for us to be told that she  was  “Royal Leopard” – a yacht not only part of the World ARC fleet, but also rated considerably slower than us. Their question , having overtaken at speed us was “What position were we in the fleet?”   

Humph! Touche Mr Pussy Cat!

Nothing exciting to report

It is already four days since our last Blog and frankly not much has happened. The wind has been fickle – making it hard to sail directly where we want to go. We have stayed north of the fleet deliberately, the master plan being to swoop down to the finish line at the last minute. We have reeled in the leaders by 50 or 60 miles over the  last 36 hours or so -  they have been in lighter winds than we have had.  We are presently lying about 7^th overall – but we are all sailing into an area of very light wind. The “Race that is Not a Race” will  be won and lost over the next 36 hours.

We have lost a few lures off the fishing rod which led us to think the line itself was bad so we have replaced that and are currently fishing expectantly with a lure we purchased in Galapagos.

Gorrilla Pod

Bob got a new toy for Christmas – I flexible tripod for his camera that will grip almost anything and anywhere. Here is a photo he took of the crew relaxing after lunch yesterday.