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Date: 02 Dec 2007 21:45:06
Title: Sunday 2nd December-at sea
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By Wednesday lunch time we had covered a further 139 miles, and had 913 left to go, so we were well justified in our half way lunch. Drinks and nuts, before dry cured Spanish ham and olives for starters, accompanied by one of Mike's excellent loaves of freshly baked bread. In defiance of earlier comments, he set too and baked a loaf between midnight and 4am, a true professional. Then Bunny's magnificent fish pie, accompanied by a bottle of vinho verde, and on to the triumph of chocolate mousse, the captain's favourite. A quiet afternoon followed. The day was also distinguished by our first sighting of a ship for 7 days, it's a surprisingly empty space.
Thursday saw lighter winds, and we only made 121 miles to noon. In the afternoon Mike and Ros experienced our first squall,with torrential rain and a rapidly increasing wind, suficient to justify three reefs in the mainsail. All over in not much more than half an hour, so pretty much in accordance with the book.The humidity remained high, so  a sharp lookout was maintained.Clocks changed another hour in the dog watches, when we saw another ship, a big tanker in ballast which eventually passed 1 mile off our starboard side, an impressive sight which brought out the cameras.
Night sailing has been helped for the last few nights by brilliant moon light, which makes the night watches much easier, especially for spotting the heavier cloud formations. Friday continued cloudy, with occasional showers and a good south easterly breeze, giving us a good day's run of 147 miles. Nightfall revealed flashes of lightning to the north, but nothing visible on radar, which is good at picking out the rain squalls. Then at 1am on Saturday the sky darkened, and soon it was raining heavily with the wind gusting up to force 6. Quickly put in a second reef in the main, and waited for it to blow through.This time no such luck. We continued with torrential bursts of rain and winds gusting up to force 6 or 7 for the next 16 hours. Below decks became like a turkish bath, with the hatches closed down, and wet clothing from the off watch crew. In the cockpit it was like standing in a car wash, and with the wind from astern there is no shelter from the canopy. Relative humidity was showing 98%, difficult to imagine what it would take to register the other two. Regular scans on the radar took care of ship safety, since visibility was negligible in the heavier bursts of rain, while the catering department scaled back from the usual hights to provide soup for lunch, and tinned ravioli for supper. All the while the radar showed heavy rain out to 12 miles all around us, while the forecasts gave no hint of anything more than a steady 20 knots from the east. Finally sighted a clearance in the sky just as darkness was falling, and with some relief we got back to more familiar conditions overnight.
This morning things were back to normal, allowing a good drying out, followed by a splendid rice salad produced by Mike and Ros for our Sunday lunch. With a days run of 145 miles,  we are beginning to feel Trinidad is within our sights with 367 miles to go. At present a Wednesday arrival looks possible, although we do have a forecast of lighter winds to come. Crew morale improved further this morning when Henry misjudged the watermaker run, and overfilled the tanks, resulting in him approving showers all round. First for 12 days, and therefore welcomed by all. Now the crew match the boat, which is looking very clean up top after the deluges of rain, which continue today, but in the expected short bursts. 
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