36:40.7N

010:50.8W

 

What three words - denture.positively.irritates

We sailed through the night last night crossing back over the shipping lanes with massive container ships heading north and south coming from and to the Med, northern Europe, and also the west coast of Africa. We passed one - "Budapest Express" - that was enormous. Even from a mile away it loomed big on the horizon. It will be in the nest insta reel whenever I get enough signal to post. 

 

The high winds earlier had made a confused sea with big rogue waves coming from random directions. This meant that the overnight sleeping was, well, pretty shit. None of us got a good night of sleep but we have all since caught up. I think we are still getting used to the motion of the boat, although it was pretty extreme last night. Still the morning brought with it a milestone that only I seemed to be excited enough to be woken up for - at 7:31 our trip counter ticked up from 999.9 nautical miles to 1,000. I made a small fanfare which didn't seem to amuse either Andy or Will but it made me happy to celebrate this massive achievement.

 

The new day also marked the ending of a lot of anxiety as we cleared all the Orca danger zones and headed south west into the Atlantic and towards Gran Canaria. Spending a few days in port having a rudder repaired would have been a breakage too far. We were about to also mark 24 hours without something breaking but that was put to bed when one of the sail blocks (a wheel that the lines run through) was found missing a part laying on the foredeck. We are fast learning that offshore sailing can take a toll on boat and person. I've nearly gone through a whole box of plasters as I have nicked, scraped and cut my fingers every day on something. As injuries go though so far a scraped finger on the cheesegrater is about as serious as it has been. Long may that continue.

 

We are at the stage in the trip where a lot of the fresh stuff in the fridge is going to start going off soon, so meals are becoming slightly more eclectic in their ingredients. I've made it my personal mission to ensure as little of the food that is perishable is thrown away so apologies to the wives and girlfriends of our crew if we send your loved ones back slightly more portly than they were when you last saw them.

 

It's another glorious day today but unfortunately the wind has died again which means our old friend the engine has been put back into action spoiling the peace and quiet. At least it ensures we continue to make progress. We did try pretty much every combination of every sail with poled out genoa, poled out code zero, not poled out genoa, not poled out code zero, main only, no main, etc etc. But it just wasn't to be.

 

At yesterday's fuel pitstop we filled the main tank but also got eight 20 litre cans and filled those too so we have plenty to get us across the big stretch of water we are now heading into. We are comfortable that we have enough now to get us to Gran Canaria even if we end up motoring all the way (which we are all hoping we will not).

 

Glenn has been beavering away for a few days on a new watch system. He resembled what I imagine inventors look like, huddled over a note pad surrounded by balled up previous attempts that didn't quite work. Eventually he raised his head with a big grin on his face. Our new system sees us get a whole eight hour period off. So four hours on watch, four hours off, four hours on, eight hours off, is the rotation and we also get to do our watches in a rotation with the other crew (whereas previously we were paired up). I'm sure Sam is looking forward to spending those late night watches with someone other than me and my slightly random chat. The new watch system kicks in at 1800 tonight with me on for four hours, and then off for eight. I have really lucked out on that one and i've never been more excited to have eight hours off in my life.

 

I think everyone feels in a good mood today. We have just put the pre made cocktails provided very kindly by our friend, Beth, in the fridge for sun downer cocktails this evening. We are all finally sitting down for the first time today. We have all been really surprised by how little 'free' time we have had. I thought that there would be massive long periods of time where I was quite bored, but we are busy! If we are not cooking, on watch, eating, cleaning, or sleeping, we are all on deck helping change the sails over or trying to fix something. I've read about 50 pages of my book so far, listened to a couple of podcasts and watched one movie. Turns out you can find a lot to keep you occupied and busy even when you only have an area the size of your living room at home to share with four other grown adults.

 

Sam has just passed me a beer and it's lovely outside so that's it for now.
Steve