Day 13 Position 14:22.65N 40:27.31W

Symatchmaker
Fri 5 Dec 2008 13:33
During the night we had our first experience of Trade Wind Squalls - Matchmaker was invaded by flying fish which landed all over the decks and in the cockpit. We experienced torrential rain and winds up to 40 knots - Matchmaker took advantage of the increasing wind strength to get some good miles under her belt. .
 
The evening meal was Chilli Con Carne and breakfast was porridge. The seas are now big and the Atlantic rollers are making steering a "skill". The boat is safe and steady and responds well to these more testing conditions - but we still get random items flying out of a carelessly stowed cupboard!
 
Calum caught a second Barracuda this morning - he was returned to the Ocean - as based upon our last experience they are NOT worth eating!
 
Katherine made "Bread" - which was hard to describe unless you are a builder ( in which case think of mortar )  -and when thrown over the side it sank like a rock....and is now several miles behind and below us.
 
We have crossed the 40 degree longitude - which means we are now 2hours 40 minutes behind London.The days run was a satisfactory 178 miles - and most of this was in the hours of darkness. The wind is still strong at 25/30knots and we are fizzing along... we are hoping for a good 24 hour run today. We hope that we are now through the calms.