Dolphins!
The Adventures of Allegria & Crew
Peter Lansdale
Sat 10 Jan 2026 12:13
Just seen a small school of dolphins swimming round the boat, jumping out of the water and belly flopping back in, causing us great excitement.
The wind has picked up and we are zooming along at around 7.5knts. With the wind, there is bit of a bigger sea, but its all behind us, so just gives us a bit of a roll now and then. We plan to put our clocks back an hour today (working towards Antigua time), so Paul has drawn the short straw and will have a four hour watch. Not that it really means much as we are all on deck together pretty much. This afternoon we plan to swap the headsails around ie Move the genoa to the port side and the jib to starboard. This will mean that if an when the wind becomes too strong, we can more easily wind in the genoa, with the sail, sheet & furling line all on the same side.
Had my first shower in our en-suite yesterday. Lovely hot water, a shower head in just the right position, & and shower pump that automatically comes on when it detects water. And Peter says that with the water maker, we can shower every day if we want! This boat is true luxury!
The bigger seas means everything is a bit more noisy at night and we are getting used to wedging ourselves in to our bunk and against the lea-cloth to sleep to stop ourselves rolling around. I'm sure we won't even notice the movement and noise in a few days (or nights) time.
(Author Milla)
We are sailing in a south westerly direction more or less following the coast of Africa. It surprises me how close we are to the continent although it's a few hundred miles away. It is also quite busy with ships and other yachts. The ships are probably heading to round South Africa to avoid the Red Sea. While I was on watch we had a reasonably close encounter with a cargo vessel so as she was approaching I called her up to confirm that they were aware of our presence. A very well spoken gentleman answered that they were and all turned out well.
Just to add to the excitement we had a big black cloud approach us from astern (that shows how exciting it is out here). As it happened I was needlessly worrying about a violent squall when it fact the wind increased a little and our progress has improved since then.
Blue sky with scattered clouds today. Peter.