41:26.15N 024:42.8 W

Day 2

All concerns about needing to motor all the way have been completely dispelled. We spent all day and half of the night beating into a force 4 or 5. The sea became pretty unpleasant, with short choppy waves, making life on board distinctly uncomfortable. Unfortunately our destination is currently dead into the wind. Looking at the weather information, and taking into account currents we are likely to pick up, we need to go through this pain for a few days before hopefully being able to bear away and storm into Falmouth on a reach. Time will tell! At this point though, an easterly route would have left us with head winds the whole way, so at the moment we are comfortable with our routing.

The wind thankfully eased up a bit in the evening, so we were able to eat in some degree of comfort. After supper, people settled down for their rest before the night watches began, including the captain who was badly in need of some sleep. About an hour into this, with the light fading from the sky, the fishing rod we had left out began zinging – a fish! Jim and I looked at each other aghast – what now! Jim has never had anything to do with fishing and I have never used that rod or indeed brought a fish aboard. John was dead to the world, so we just thought we would have to deal with it. Georgie, who had been shall we say, slightly sea affected all day, leaped from her bunk at the cry of fish and arrived on deck complete with fishing bag and a certain amount of know how. Gradually we managed to wind the fish in, a 3 to 4 lb tuna, while Jim kept the boat flat for us. So now, fish on end of line at the boat, what next?  Luckily, a rather grumpy John arrived on deck demanding to know what the hell was going on. Once he knew it was a fish, however, he too leaped into action, the fish was brought on board, dispatched and butchered ready for an excellent lunch which David prepared the next day. Today we have all had fishing lessons.

We have seen a lot of dolphins, several ships and the regular but never quite certain sightings of things that ‘could be whales’. However as David puts it, Battle of Britain rules apply, so no official whale sightings yet.