Wonderful to be getting your emails out here in the middle of the Atlantic!  What a strange phenomena!  The power of technology!  I can’t put photos on the blog at the moment as it is too expensive to download the images at sea through the iridium phone……..

I am sure you are all dying to know the status play of the non fish?  Well we now have three rods out the back, each with a tasty looking morsel on the end but STILL no takers!!  We have seen a whale today, sharks, fish jumping, birds flying, dolphins breathing so heavily as they rise beside the boat you can hear them gasp for breath in their effort to play and keep up – but no dinner!!

We had a eerie night, no wind, lightening on the horizon, thick oily sea, intermittent rain and thick fog ……. Not quite what we were expecting.  Oscar did well and spotted a ship on the radar just two miles away on a near collision course.  Radio log in the mornings is interesting to see how everyone has got on – Zippy do da has had a minor fire – no casualties, Glendora has hit an object and poor Terri had to jump overboard and fix the prop in the night, Neva are on their way at last with an iridium  but no SSB I don’t think……Hakuna Matata had a close encounter with a lightening bolt and are busy baking bread and roasting turkeys for their thanksgiving tomorrow!

For our part we have unblocked the forward loo (again) – nobody will admit to putting the baby wipes in the pan!!  The water maker is making water but not as much as it probably should so we are being conservative with the washing machine. The ropes had chaffed badly on the mainsail so that has been repaired today and with the hope of the elusive wind we have had a general stow.  Yesterday I gave Bennett and Michael a pedicure but managed to inflict some damage to both of their poor feet with my new shaving scalpel……. Got a little over zealous.  Last night Paul and I watched a film, My Left Foot, and it was like being at the cinema although a bit disconcerting to be wearing ear phones and so unable to hear engine noises etc. so as not to wake Bennett whilst Michael and Oscar shared their watches………

We had an earlier dinner tonight – devilled kidneys and rice – all together at 1800 around the cockpit table which was much nicer than eating separately in the dark later so we will stick to this pattern from now on……..