Day 9 - Position 15:50.005N 035:35.877W

Stravaig
Mon 1 Dec 2008 21:39
Hi there. Cameron here...again.

Last night I had about 6 hrs sleep which is a little less than I would
usually get. I didn't really mind though cause I caught up with it during my
watch! (woops!). I was hoping that no one would notice however sadly this
wasn't the case and my punishment was today's equivalent of keel hauling!!!
See the photo below!

Today has been a lot more interesting than the last few days although we
could have done with some more wind! At a steady 3 kts, we've have
unfortunately had to keep the engine on all day! Bit of a shame but there's
nothing we can do about it!

We did a spot of fishing today too and we had 3 bites on the line but each
time the fish managed to escape and on two occasions they took the lures
with them!!! They must have been fairly large fish since we were using wire
leaders and 150lb line!! We'll get them next time!

Today's entertainment consisted of rigging up the spinnaker pole with
pulleys and ropes so that we could climb out onto it with a harness on, 10ft
away from the boat and 4m above the ocean surface, then be dragged, dipped
and hung upside down on this rope. All of this with some 5 miles of water
beneath us and with all sorts of creatures swimming around us - very scary!

Tonight we are having a bit of a party to celebrate reaching the half way
mark. This will be the first time that we (the adults only of course!) will
have had a beer or a gin + tonic since leaving Las Palmas last weekend so
there may be some very interesting behaviour later on!!! I'll let you know!!

We continue to head west but unfortunately we seem to be heading into a hole
where there doesn't appear to be any wind at all. According to the forecasts
the next time we will see wind sufficient to allow us to get some canvas out
is likely to be sometime between the 3rd and 5th December! Very frustrating.

Three photos today; one of me being hung upside down out on the spinnaker
pole and dragged along above the ocean; one of the 'crew' which I took while
I was out on the pole; and one of us having dinner all together for the
first time this evening.

Good night.

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