Tuesday 27th November- half way to Trinidad
Spellbinder
Tue 27 Nov 2007 11:55
We managed another day's run of over 150 miles to noon on Monday, but the afternoons variable breeze slowed our progresss, and so we did not have sufficient confidence to give the caterer his required 24 hours notice for a celebratory lunch today. Plans are in hand for tomorrow, when we are confident of being well inside the 1000 miles to go, given our lively progress today. At present we are in about 20 knots of wind from the north east, exactly as forecast by our American colleagues, falsely maligned in our last blog. After further study by Henry we established that although the sat C system knows where we are, we had to change from the Atlantic east satellite to the Atlantic west satellite in order to benefit from their weather broadcasts. All now working well, and apologies to our US readers for the slur on their fine country.
We are looking at about 135 miles for our 24 hour run to noon today, and should be under 1000 to go before midnight. The catering organisation is gearing up for lunch tomorrow, fish pie a le Rabbit, and mousse au chocolat a la Ros. Normal highly strung chef behaviour over use of stove and utensils, and Mike is licking his wounds after being told there is insufficient room for him to bake fresh bread.He was offered the 4-8 am slot for the cooker, but surprisingly declined.
We had a visitor last evening, who landed on one of the solar panels, and settled down oblivious to our activities in the cockpit. Henry however was not oblivious to the visitors activities, and when he (the visitor, dear reader) relieved himself on the solar panel, he was evicted. After another circuit of the boat he settled back on top of the radar dome, and there he stayed for the night, back firmly turned towards us. A remarkable balancing act for a bird with clawed feet on such a smooth surface, he finally departed at 7.30 this morning to join a couple of others of his kind. Sadly not identified, best guess so far is a fulmar. The only bird we seem to be able to positively identify is the Frigate bird, with it's distinctive long tail. Hint, hint for a Christmas present?