Yesterday morning the wind died completely.  For the first time in three weeks I turned on the engine and put it in gear.  The forecast was for it to fill back in today so I was quite content to mosey along at just over 3 kts with the engine idling.  During the night the wind veered to the north and by 1000 was blowing a consistent 15kts.

 

After setting the sails and the vane steering I turned my skills to the washing-up, where I began by throwing half my cutlery over the side with the dishwater and followed that by dropping the bucket over too, (not in the one action either).  Luckily I had the bucket tied to the boat as i have already fallen foul to losing a bucket and nearly a finger or two when the passing water whisked my last one away.  For a second I played it like a skilled fisherman but all I landed was a buckled rusty old wire handle with two nubbins of bucket at either end.

 

I am approximately two days from Falmouth Harbour now and decided it was time to educate myself a little about the entrance, buoys, leading lights etc.  I pulled out the paper chart for the island and glanced over the inset for Falmouth.  I was quite surprised by the lack of detail and more surprised to find that the chart was corrected to 1990, relatively new as charts go.  It wasnât until later that it dawned on me that the lines of latitude seemed very far apart.  I took out the chart again and sure enough the island is tiny.  About 10 by 10 Nm.  The harbours like La Coruna, Vigo, Cadiz and Santa Cruz are what I have become used to, and these are bigger than the entire Island. 

 

Dinner today was tinned packet and tripe and âsomethingâ.  Iâm not quite sure what came over me in the supermarket in Las Palmas.  Perhaps I thought it would be a âcoolâ or âhardyâ gesture to eat this at the half way mark, or maybe I told myself that this is how our forefathers would have done it,  but in a spirit of adventure it went in the basket.  By the half-way mark foolhardiness had abated favouring keeping whatâs inside; inside.  Today I decided that it would have to be eaten, Iâm too frugal to throw it away and Iâm not going to listen to it rolling around a locker for a couple of years, besides I donât think the cats in Antigua would lower themselves.  For a finish it was stomach-able and the tripe was fine, it was the âsomethingâ that was a bit zingy and after eating half of it, I threw the rest over the side.

 

 

Hi to 1st and 2nd class in LETS primary school, Limerick.  Tell Peter that I will get him the parrot and elephant egg if he gives you homework off for the first two days when you return to school.