The weather in Mauritania... scorchio!

Tillymint.fortescue
Sat 19 Sep 2009 19:22
32:15:023N 011:37:424
 
Ahoy there me hearties! Shiver me timbers and damn me for a blind bo'sun's mate! And other piratical nonsense.
 
Just time for a quick update before we start dealing cards. Mauritania was lovely. Unexpected, but lovely. Sadly the camera jammed at the crucial moment, otherwise you would have been able to enjoy a photo of Tilly Mint bobbing gently at anchor in a desert oasis, fringed with palms and thirsty camels.
 
With the technical error rectified, we were speedily transported back to patch of deep blue sea approximately miles from anywhere. As night falls, our horizon shrinks until, far from feeling like lords of all we survey (to whit: waves), we are wrapped in a coccoon of light from our instruments, scudding furtively along with no idea whether pods of curious whales and unidentified monsters of the deep quietly observe from the nearby dark.
 
The wind has done a smart 180-degree handbrake turn and we're now on a very nice reach. We maxed out at 10-point-something a moment ago and are even now buzzing along at a lively 8 knots. Skipper looks exceeding chuffed indeed.
 
Wait until he sees the four aces in my hand...