Monday Nov 7th On passage to Barbados 14 20.9N 28 14.3W

Today's Blog by Bob

A day of settling in to our new routine.

Yesterday we signified our departure from Furna with lots of waving and Khachaturian's love theme from "Spartacus" played at full volume on the cockpit hifi.  This may not have meant a lot to the Islanders who have probably never seen "The Onedin Line" but at least it gave us a sense of occasion and was one in the eye for the guy who parked his pickup next to the restaurant with the hifi blaring out as we ate dinner the previous.

night.

 I felt sad at leaving, our faithful friend Beto was there to cast off our shore line and Mama was waving from the restaurant. I simply liked the place and the people and hope that one day I can go back and renovate that dilapidated house.

After clearing the confused air in the lee of Brava we set our downwind rig for what we hope will be a smooth crossing and last night ate a tasty pasta Bolognese cooked by...er me, under a starry sky flecked with clouds.  Dolphins came and played for a while and then went off to find some faster friends.

David managed to find a ship on his night watch. In all this ocean he found a cargo ship en route to Falmouth on a collision course. We passed like ships in the night.

This morning we started to settle into our routine of watchkeeping, eating and sleeping and had just congratulated ourselves on covering 160 miles in the last 24 hours when the sheet to the starboard headsail parted. Despite all the care that we have put into avoiding chafe this 14 millimetre thick muliplait rope had been simply chomped through by some slight imperfection in the jaws at the end of the spinnaker pole in 24 hours. The prospect of dropping both headsails  to replace the sheet was not a nice one but with the advantage of Richard's extra inches (in height) we managed to remove the remnants of the old sheet and loop in the remade  end with the sails still hoisted. Then comedy hour followed as three grown men attempted to tie the most basic of seamen's knots.  The bowline.  Try it now kids

“Dammit does the rabbit go round the tree before or after going through the hole?”  (Linda please note the lifejacket)

“Is there no end to this expenditure”  David with an _expression_ familiar to most boat owners

The sea is now longer between the swells and looking more and more like the classic Atlantic. The wind is a comfortable 16 knots on our starboard quarter pushing us along somewhere between 6 to 8 knots.  Ahead is the only way now, there can be no turning back against the wind, next stop Barbados. Just ahead.  1820 miles away.