Blog for today day 47 Wednesday 18:15.82N 27:27.88W

Voyage of Wanderingstar
Ben Bonnick
Wed 22 Nov 2017 12:08

Hello all, if there are any of you left... I’ve got no idea who reads this but I hope it's of interest. If nothing else it provides an insight into my world…..

I'm now west of the Cape Verde’s and its been challenging finding wind, so for 2 days I've been motoring, which is not fun, its noisy and its hot and the boat vibrates and it uses up valuable resource….but today I’m sailing again and have brought out my pole, keep your hats on, as I also have a photo. It allows me to sail downwind catching the maximum amount of air in the front sail and its working brilliantly I’m getting 3.6 knots from 12 knots wind which compares with 4 knots motoring. Its all about getting the maximum from the resources available. So today, I will continue sailing and take a bit of a hit on speed but Thur and Friday I may revert back to motoring as the wind fcst drops to less than 6 knots which I really can’t do nothing with. If I include my reserve I’ve used about 1/3 of my fuel so I still have options open.

Also yesterday I heard a slightly different rattle from the engine had a look and noticed that the starter solenoid had worked itself loose so thankfully sorted that out before it became a problem.

I’ve used nearly half my water supply so I’ve now introduced a rule that water is only to be used for drinking. I was boiling up the kettle and using what remained for washing up but that's got to stop and use sea water for washing up and unfortunately just when I need it most I dropped the bucket overboard yesterday. Ive got approx 100 litres of water left if I assume another 20 days at sea that's 5 litres a day so should be ample but got to watch it and it is very hot now yesterday 88 degrees in the shade.

Also I’m out of sweets which is a bugger as I had already rationed myself to 4 a day but I just lost control. I've only got 5 milks left which once opened only last 48 hrs and all the evaporate milk has gone, plus all the meat balls and breakfasts in a tin have been used up and I’ve only got about 3 days left of breakfast cereal.  

One strange thing on Monday in the distance probably about half a mile away I saw this odd shape about 20 or 30 feet in the air then this massive splash. I can only assume it was a creature of some kind but it was one of those….what the f*** was that moments…..        

Now, one last thing, if you could please help me with the wind and do a wind dance and there’s a rather rude little chant that goes with it which I have shared with you below but have removed the vulgar bits:

Wind ****  **** **** blow **** **** wind **** up **** **** wind  **** ……then repeat 4 times