Hello

We are now exactly mid way across the Atlantic (we know we are mid way because Marion made us bacon egg and sausage this morning). There are of course other ways to determine mid way. For example you could simply divide the distance from Las Palmas to St Lucia by two and when this distance is covered that could be half way. You could also just work it out by the lines of longitude and simply pick the half way line on the chart. You could work out how many days at sea we are and guess how many more we might be and divide that by two. But none of these methods actually work very well as sailing boats do not go in a straight line and sometimes you may have to go twice as far to do half the distance. I hope this makes sense to you non sailors so we are still happy with the B,E &S method.

 

I’m still in shorts but the t-shirt has gone. Would like to get rid of the shorts also but must keep some dignity amongst the crew.

 

So far we have had a real mish mash of weather and the experts tell us that it is most unusual, all we know is that it is very frustrating. Still rather have this than what you are getting back home.

 

To date we have still only caught the 5 fish (1 Scabbard, 1 Tuna, 3 Maui Maui otherwise known as Dourade). All eaten and only the bones thrown away.

We have seen some fantastic sunsets and sun rises and some amazingly clear skies. We’ve had wind on the nose, wind behind us, wind on the beam and no wind and altogether we have only eaten two tins of beans but we are still moving in a westerly direction and with a bit of luck should be in Las Palmas for Christmas. Hope the milk lasts.

 

Life on board has settled down to a nice routine even if I do spend too much time with the electronics. Firstly the computer (writing this email for example) writing blogs (few and far between) downloading weather via the satellite phone then arranging it so that it can be printed out for everyone to drool over. We have position reporting on the SSB (single side band or long range radio transmitters) then we have positions to download from the ARC organisation telling us the positions of the other 249 boats in the fleet. When not motoring we have to generate power using a mixture of wind generator, water generator and solar panels. All need monitoring on a regular basis.

 

Then the bread has to be made each day, the water maker has to be run every two days. So life on board is busy and not all plain sailing.

 

It’s getting late now and nearing the end of my watch so I’ll sign off and wish you all some better weather.

 

 

Conor