It’s always hard to sleep the first night at sea – but last night on Bandit was a nightmare.  With 30 knots of wind and a 2-3 m swell, our bed was like one of those mechanical bucking bulls.  Neither of us got much sleep during our off watches so, in desperation at 4am we made a bed on the saloon floor.  Remembering that all wise sailors know that’s the most comfortable spot in a seaway, we then cursed out stupidity for not doing it earlier. 

Despite the discomfort, we’ve made fantastic speed.  We covered 170mls in 24 hours, averaging  7 knots, at times more than 9!!  If the swell would settle a bit it would make life more comfortable.

Both bright eyed and bushy tailed for the 9am SSB check in and good to hear familiar voices on the radio including a fair share of Kiwis.  Former Marlborough boat Cutty Hunk (previously owned by Richard and Wendy Batchelor) is leading the Kiwi charge en route to Barbados from the Cape Verdes.  Hope they don’t drink all the rum when they get there!

David spent yesterday with a huge grin on his face after testing Bandit’s latest gadget – a towed generator we’ve nicknamed William the Worm (it looks like a worm in the water and, apparently, can be very attractive to sharks….hmmmmm).  With Bandit whizzing along William was pumping in the power meaning we didn’t have to run the diesel generator all day, despite having Zak (autopilot) on.  We don’t handsteer a lot relying on Zak to keep things under control.  Willy the worm did get a bit out of control in the night and got caught up in  the  NZ flag, which was furled, this caused the generator to jam and the tow rope twist into a thousand knots!!!!  Fun thing to wake up to. Now we have a new rope on, thanks to Stefano! 16mm spectra and is now performing much better.

Daily chores await – David is on breadmaking duty and Brenda is about to do the usual housework which turns into a pilates session in these conditions.