19:39.38N 21:37.27W                                                                                                                                          17^th November 2014

230 miles west of Mauritania (Western Sahara)

2704 miles from Ramsgate by Log.

            Apart from the bad news from home this has been a wonderful sail. The wildlife has been abundant and our fishermen have failed to capture any of it. The flying fish have shown up and at the moment there are regular groups of 10-20 of them flying away from our bow as we plough on through the waves. We have sighted whales at least once every day and the dolphins pop up every now and then to check on our progress. Apart from that human life forms have been a rarity. We have seen 4 planes and two ships in the last 4 days all way of except for one. That one showed up on AIS 15 miles behind us last night and closing. On investigation all it said was that it was a sailing yacht and it was doing 9 knots. We were doing 6.5 at the time and so a few surreptitious twitches started to be applied to lines and sail trim became a topic of discussion. Not that we were racing you understand, but we managed to tweak her up to 7 Knots. On checking, the other boat was still closing, now doing 9.4 Knots. An hour later the AIS signal was strong enough to get more details, the other boat was called Constance and she was 97ft long and 24ft on the beam (obviously they couldn’t afford a 100 footer), so honour saved we let her sail past. She slowed down as it got dark but inexorably closed us down finally passing still doing 8 knots 2 miles to starboard at 0200 in the morning. And that is about exciting as it gets. The generator has decided not to generate so that will have to be fixed in the Cape Verde, I am pretty sure it is a relay or loose connection as the motor is running fine and it will provide power on occasion. We are running the main engine for three hours a day to keep everything topped up and cooled down which seems to be working, so expensive on fuel but no dramas yet.

            Thanks to everyone who has replied to my request for info on the blog it is much appreciated that you are enjoying the read out there. One comment was that it was good to hear about the mundane trials of cruising life rather than just fast sails glorious sunsets, storms and baggy wrinkles, so here goes: An example of life on passage:

How to make posh coffee down wind in a force 6 and 3 meter swell

1. Someone who shall remain nameless (Steve) says that “a posh coffee would be nice, wouldn’t it”?
2. Paul, who is on Mummy watch, decides to meet the challenge.
3. Get packet of filter coffee from cupboard and put on work surface.
4. Boat lurches; pick packet up from floor and lay flat on work surface.
5. Get coffee pot out of cupboard and put on work surface.
6. Boat lurches; pick coffee pot up from floor and place bottom part on gimballed cooker, fill top part with water by mistake and screw onto the bottom part unknowingly making it top heavy.
7. Cut top from filter coffee packet place on work surface and return scissors to drawer for safety.
8. Boat lurches; turn around and in slow motion watch filter coffee packet spill contents on galley floor.
9. Begin to pick up coffee granules from floor.
10. Boat lurches; watch in slow motion as coffee pot succumbs to gravity and spills water onto galley floor.
11. Try to catch it slip and end up sitting in now wet coffee granules.
12. Scrape mess into top part of coffee pot and while hanging on to the sink with one leg braced across the galley, fill the bottom part with water, use both arms, both legs chin and elbows to assemble the thing and clamp it down onto the cooker.
13. Start to mop up the layer of cold coffee coagulating on the floor, slip twice more.
14. Receive acerbic comment from a passing Norma about state of the galley while on my knees mopping up.
15. Walk backwards into aft cabin as I mop, spread even finer layer of cold coffee on that floor.
16. Receive acerbic comment from a passing Norma about state of aft cabin floor while on my knees mopping up.
17. Finish cleaning, realise my feet are brown with coffee so crawl on my knees into aft toilet (heads) to wash feet.
18. Balance on one leg with foot in sink.
19. Boat lurches; Spread coffee from feet down the shower curtain, hit the luckily closed toilet seat face first while foot is still in sink (trust me it is painful but possible).
20. Untangle my various body parts, strip off because I am now covered in coffee sludge and get myself wedged into a corner and return foot to sink.
21. Receive acerbic comment from a passing Norma about performing unnatural acts in the aft toilet (heads) when I should be making coffee.
22. Clean feet, clean me, clean toilet, clean shower curtains, clean wall, clean a coffee smudge from ceiling (not sure how that got there but it hurt), put clothes in laundry basket, dress and clean route back to galley.
23. Check on coffees progress and realise I haven’t lit the gas!!!!
24. light gas.
25. Watch coffee pot like a hawk, note: a watched pot does boil, it just takes a very long time.
26. Coffee percolates, place three cups in sink to avoid spillage (getting clever now), Pour coffee.
27. Boat lurches; Waste half of coffee down sink,
28. Boil water and top up filter coffee with that, they will never notice if I don’t tell them!
29. Open fridge to get milk
30. Boat lurches; half of the fridges contents eject onto my lap.
31. Shove it all back into fridge except milk which has skidded under the chart table.
32. Retrieve milk on knees and crawl back to galley.
33. Receive acerbic look, but no comment, from a Norma, who is looking down the hatch from the cockpit with an _expression_ of, “I should have listened to my Mother on her face”.
34. Begin to pour milk into coffee cups. (remember those, they have been going cold in the sink)
35. Boat lurches; Waste half of milk down sink,
36. Open fridge and shove milk in while boat is relatively stable.
37. Serve coffee to a delighted and grateful crew
38. Total time 1 hour 15 mins who said ocean sailing was tedious and boring, sometimes there are just not enough hours in the day.

Now to wash up the dishes but that’s another story …………………………..

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Spectra {CHANGE TO AT} maiasail {DOT} com

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