After about 25 minutes, our Twizzle rig was set and to reward us for the hard work, a pod over over 50 dolphins, a turtle and a whale swam, played and jumped alongside the boat for a few hours. Now, we've seen a lot of dolphins in the Atlantic before, but these were very active. They were jumping 3 meters high and some slapping their tails as they re-entered the water. Were they trying to tell us something?

 

As the sun set, and we polished off an amazing Ottelenghi pasta dish by Ben, gybed the sails and for the first time of the trip, we were pointing the boat at St. Lucia. HUZZAH!

 

As with the previous night, the star show was phenomenal. Sailing conditions were perfect too, as we regularly surfed Theia into double figures. If sailing was like this every day, you'd never get us off the water.

 

The sense of remoteness out here is quite something. We can only see other yachts when they're about 4 miles away and they only show up on our computer screens when they're 8 miles away. During the previous 24hrs we hadn't seen a single other yacht, just a few ships heading South. However, last night it was as if the fleet were all descending on one spot as in the space of 5 hours in the night, we saw 12 other yachts, and had to adjust our course 3 times to avoid crashing into fellow competitors. It's crazy, such a vast stretch of water yet we were on a collision course three times.

 

Dawn broke and the last of the collision course yachts disappears Southward and again, we're alone again with only one other vessel for company, as we both head in the same direction.

 

 

- Wild turtle

- Whale breech

- Large pod of dolphins

- Using a a sea toilet at 45 degrees

 

Turtles: 1