Thurs 24/11/11 – Thar She Blows (at last) – 23:41.3N 023:22.7W

We woke up to very light winds, pretty well dead in the water and sails flogging uselessly. We had a false Man Overboard alarm in the middle of the night when one of the personal pendants triggered the system. Panic ensued, and the alarm noise is so awful that brains get fried, buttons pressed and bedlam ensues. After a few moments, nobody knows which device caused the problem, and once batteries are pulled out of the little devils, you cannot sort the mess out at all. To get people back to bed, and stop the infernal noise, the navigation kit was switched off till morning, so we have about a 25 nm “gap” in our track.

In the absence of enough wind to drive the boat, and whilst the MOB alarm problem was unpicked (a pendant in a locker, not one that was being worn!) we stuck on the engine and had breakfast. Whilst kicking things around (where is the cat when you need it?), the wind picked up a bit, enough to give us a sail. We sorted out the Parasailor (always a bit of the Generation Game working out the sheets and downhauls and cursing whoever packed it last time – ah that was me), and set her flying. We did not have much hope for a good sail, as we had less than 10 knots apparent wind, but it perked up and the day brightened for this and other reasons.

Just after 0900, a whale blew about 100 metres away off our starboard bow, rolling just on and under the surface. We slowed down to watch her as we glided by, another Attenborough moment. Later, the dolphins came to play with us, not a party this time but more of a “travelling in company” event, staying with us for the best part of an hour towards darkness.

We spent a few hours working on the broken spinnaker pole problem, and executing Bob’s cunning plan. Grinding down the broken casting that slots into the pole, shaping it to slip into the plastic collar, drilling and tapping it and stuffing the gaps with epoxy.... oh what fun! We will see if it works tomorrow. Time for a shower, then! Generator, water maker and water heater run for a couple of hours, and the joy of clean bodies.... our needs are simple, really, it is the desires and ambitions that get us in trouble!

It has actually been surprisingly cool, not quite what we had anticipated. We have had a fair bit of cloud cover, and little direct sun, so generally we have not been scorched which is a blessing. The temperature is supposed to increase by about 6 degrees over the crossing, but as yet the duvets have not been discarded. In the meantime, we are getting into a much better wind zone, if not quite amongst the trades we wanted yet. Looks better for the next couple of days, so progress will be made....

We played a bit of music this evening, for the first time since Las Palmas, so another step towards normality. Might even open a book again.....

Only 2300 nm to go, Angela tells us

Watergaw