33:11:08N 009:27:54W

 

Date and lemon muffins for morning tea, a steady breeze from behind, pilot whales accompanying us, a satellite phone call from home (thanks Susi) and....all on the skipper’s birthday.  Yes it’s David’s first birthday “at sea” and so far it’s been a fairly relaxing day.  Dinner tonight is fresh tuna steaks – caught by David yesterday – so life on Bandit is pretty good.

 

We’ve had great sailing since leaving Mohammedia – a little on the nose at first but the wind soon backed and it’s been on the beam or just behind.  Bandit’s making good progress – right now smoking along at 7 knots.  As we haven’t done any motoring we’ve had to run the generator a few hours a day to keep our batteries charged (for auto pilot/GPS/radar/nav lights/computer etc). Temperamental beast that she is, she chose last night to pack a sad.  Thank goodness for Mr Fixit......a half hour later the offending water pump was repaired and she was up and running again.

 

Night watch was uneventful except for the pilot whales’ visit at around 4am and the occasional ship on the horizon.  We seem to have left the Moroccan tuna fleet well and truly behind.  We both managed to get a few hours’ sleep while off watch.....but as the sun warms the cockpit, the cushions are looking very tempting for an afternoon snooze.