Midnight we had made it as far as 17:35.37N 29:59.91W – 6th of December, 2008.

Engine Time – 2.01 Hours

The wind has been really light, so the battery slowly discharge’s. Even with our water generator, wind generator and solar panel’s, we are under powered. Our trusty crew member Artie the Auto Pilot suck’s about 4 Amps per hour and then you have everything else on top of that. I.e. Fridge for cold beer. The problem is you need wind for the wind generator to work and the water generator will only put in 1 Amp per knot and we have only been doing about 4 Knot’s due to lack of wind. The rest is made up from the equatorial current. Thus about 100 Amp Hours a day go in but a lot more is going out. Our Solar panels which are fantastic are not really doing anything for us on this run as the sun comes up behind us and shadows are cast until about 11AM and only then I will get 1 or 2 hours of decent sun before it moves to our front and once again the sun is blocked by our huge a-symmetric spinnaker. 

Well, I am sure these fantastic calm sea’s and light winds can only last so long, I am looking forward to a little more to be honest as it is pretty amazing when you are flying along with more power being produced than you know what to do with.

We caught another Mahi Mahi last nigh, this time a massive fish, I chopped him up into 3 pieces and steamed him for about 10 minute’s until his flesh dropped off the bone. We then made some amazing fish cakes and believe me we went light on with the potatoes and not the fish, they were amazing. We were also fortunate enough to pick up a heap of fresh coriander from the village we left from just to top it off.

Special comments by Fiona:  Funny, I used to turn my nose up at all the fish Ben caught.  I’m not a huge fish eater and being surrounded by the smell of the sea and lots of sea water didn’t do me any favors in my excitement each time Ben caught a fish and whacked it on the bbq.  But now Ben’s invented new ways of preparing the fish and those fish cakes have to be the best I’ve ever tasted….restaurant quality.

Day 137

Traveling Direction – West

Wind Direction – North East East – moderate

Swell – Moderate

Average Speed –  4.6

Top Speed – 8.0 Knots Through the water

Distance Covered – 110.0 Nautical Miles