25:38.45N
16:51.73W

 

what three words :relative.dented.twaddle

 

Last night's dinner was, as expected, perfect. Jooj is fast becoming the on board chef and even though we have a cooking rota I think he will end up delighting us on more than his fair share of evenings. Thankfully he likes cooking so we don't feel too guilty. Today has had a massive pork chop salted and drying and ready for a rum and caper sauce, and he's now below deck with the music on working his magic.

 

With very little wind yesterday after the start the non racing boats were split into those that decided to sacrifice fuel for speed and those that decided to try to sail through the night. We fell into the sail group having done a few hours of motoring early to get into a better position. However this has made us drop back somewhat in the pack. As I finished my night watch at 3, leaving Jooj on handing over to Andy the wind was still pretty light but i woke a few hours later to the sound of water rushing by outside. At first light we got the code zero out and were soon making a very respectful 8 knots - quicker than those in front of us allowing us to close the gap somewhat. Just to be clear we are not racing, but we are also quite clear about one thing; we are not going to be last!

 

Before we left Gran Canaria, Jooj who has been excited to try fishing on this trip, did a last minute run to the fishing shop on the marina. He boarded the boat triumphant with 100m intimidatingly thick fishing line and two lures (one which looked like a squid and one which just looked like a shiny fish), both of which were the size of what i thought we would be catching. Apparently we are hoping to get a Tuna. I'm sceptical but supportive of this venture even if the idea of trying to get a massive Tuna reeled in when we don't have a rod, and on board, and then in a state which is table ready, horrifies me. Needless today we won't be having Tuna sashimi for dinner just yet.

 

One of the ARC fleet boats, called Helena, broadcast over VHF that they were having an issue with a seacock - an opening in the hull which allows water to get in or out of the boat from the sink or the toilet etc. They had managed to bung the hole temporarily whilst they tried to fix it. We watched them on the plotter as they slowly headed back to Gran Canaria. Late this afternoon a very tired sounding guy broadcast back over the VHF that after several failed attempts they had managed to fix the issue and were back on their way. This was met with a flurry of messages in support and congratulations flooding the airwaves.

 

In a slightly more light hearted interaction we eavesdropped on a conversation between two passing yachts which was actually nothing short of a friendly interrogation - "hi, where are you heading? How many are you on board? where are you from? do you have dog?". the chatty passing boat was apparently filming with five Belgian TV celebrities for a new documentary called Over the Ocean - based on the interaction i'm not holding out for it!

 

The fleet is now relatively spread out. The number of boats we can see with the naked eye has been dropping throughout the day and we can now only see about two on the horizon. But we can track then all on AIS on our chart plotter. At present there seems to be two contingents - one heading more south and one heading more west. We are heading south to try and avoid a patch of zero wind. With us (although much further in front) is a boat called Mola that was next to us in Gran Canaria. The skipper is a 75 year old German guy called Wolf! This is his tenth Atlantic crossing so I'm a litte comforted that he's in our pack for now!