12:16N 46:09W

daily run – 151 miles   miles to go to Barbados - 784

 

I think we’ve said previously that the highlight of our day comes at midday when we dial up the satellite phone and update our daily position/blog and send and receive emails.  It’s always exciting to see the inbox fill up.  There’s not much to do out here on the briny apart from read, sleep and eat so getting emails from friends and family really is fantastic.  And of course, we cannot get internet so hearing what is happening in the big wide world is always an added bonus.  For an hour or so after mail arrives both skipper and cook abandon on deck duties to fight over the laptop.  So a big thank you to everyone – especially those wonderful people who have taken on the challenge of sending regular emails...they are so appreciated and we do try to return as many as possible.  It’s not always easy to type as Bandit bucks and lurches but we try to make an effort.  We realise it is the Christmas holiday period and so many of you are on holiday and the last thing you want to do is sit in front of a computer.  But should you find yourself reading our blog.....then a quick email to us would give us no end of pleasure.  Thanks so much – please keep it up, only another week (give or take a day) to go!

 

And please – would someone let us know whether it was Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in You’ve Got Mail?  Skipper vs cook debate underway.

 

You’ll notice that we’ve added our daily run (24 hours noon til noon) and miles to go to the blog due to a suggestion from David’s sister Susi who thought our flags on the chart were getting further apart and wanted to know for sure.  She’s right!  Since leaving the Verdes our daily runs have been 140, 150, 146, 135, 153, 164 and today’s 151– so you can see we are getting faster as we settle into the classic trade wind passage.  (Except for last night when we had a major hitch which the engineer is still working on – all will be revealed in tomorrow’s blog).  It’s not always comfortable sailing but it is comforting knowing our destination is getting closer.  In a few days we should be able to smell the rum!

 

Most exciting news from the past 24 hours was the successful landing of a big mahimahi.  It took the lure just on sunset (this is the best time to fish we’ve discovered) but took about half an hour to land.  Bandit was smoking along at about 7 knots and with our sail configuration it was a bit hard to turn into wind to slow the boat down, but by furling a bit of headsail and pulling in the main, we managed it.  Fantastic to get such a good fish – a few fillets have gone into the freezer but for the next few days it will be mahimahi, mahimahi and mahimahi.