Wednesday Nov 7th On passage to Barbados 14 22.2N 33 00.8W

72 hours out from Brava now, we have made good 500 miles in three days, close to our target of 170 miles a day. This is not by any means fast, but we have had a constant 15-20kts Trade Wind from the NE since we left, the sea has been calm and we have had sufficient cloud to keep the sun at bay.  From our perspective, that is pretty much ideal; making a reasonable speed, in benign conditions with the crew now settled into their watch routine.  I can’t help thinking we will end up paying for it somehow!

It is now a week since we completed our fresh food provisioning and most of the green stuff has already gone off - in various degrees of putridity  –so we are reduced to what we have tinned or have frozen.  That said the culinary experience has been good – last night we had the last Beef Casserole that in fact Richard Little had prepared for the passage to Cape Verdes – full marks for that! (Peter: we are beginning to miss the straight forward simplicity of your  “Pasta and Bits”!)

Yesterday passed uneventfully for most of the crew.  However, the aft heads grey water (sink and shower) drain pump had ceased to pump and needed attention. It was not that the pump didn’t work, but that it wouldn’t suck the head of air up the 5 metre pipe from the sump.  This had happened before. In fact it is a known problem that Oyster are aware of but have so far not come up with a recommended a fix. In the past, though, we have found various fixes  involving waggling various pipes but this time to no avail.  So David entered the engine room for the first time, to remove the pump to service it. I can’t say that – on inspection - we really thought the service kit was going to make the difference but we did it anyway and then reinstalled it. To no-one’s surprise there was no improvement.  In all David spent 6 hours – largely in the engine room -  trying various ways to replumb the system, each to no avail. So we reassembled everything in abject defeat.  

Clearly the Gods had sympathy with the crew – which now faced with the prospect of sharing their heads with David - because about 30 minutes later – as if by magic – the system was working again!

Fishing has met with mixed success. The book says that trolling for fish is an activity that should be conducted at 2-4 knots; Serendipity is travelling between 6-10 knots and so it is an athletic fish that catches up with it.  We have had a number of bites but they mostly realise the error of their ways when they get dragged along at 9 knots in a direction they don’t want to go  and let go before they get hooked.  One was a VERY LARGE fish which snapped the line (20lb breaking strain) and is now swimming around with an iridescent green muppet dangling from his lip along with 50-100m of line.  We have landed (or more accurately boated) one 3/4lb dorado which is now in the fridge waiting for us to catch another to make a meal for five.

So that’s about it for now.  The weather looks as if it will get lighter over the next few days and so we may have to head south in search of the wind. Right now though, things are looking good. There is the occasional squall around which we steer to avoid and we continue – at the moment at about 8 knots – sailing towards the sunset……