20. 29N 28.19W We are now on a direct bearing for Antigua.  The butter hasn’t melted yet but we have still turned right!  The eighth day, Saturday, was pretty non eventful and sombre compared to the jollity of the day before.  Everyone seemed reflective and quiet and we all went about our business of reading and pottering…… we lost two fish, one bent the rod literally double before it made its escape – lure and all; the other we reeled all the way in but the line veered towards the tow generator which released the fish but hung on to the lure!!  The wind got up so we had a hurried evening meal before we had a couple of spats of rain, enough to bring in the cushions in, and it was thought that we should double up on my watch in case of trouble.  In the event poor old Bennett was on watch from 6 to midnight, partly with Oscar, then Michael helped me out on mine until 2 am, then Paul from 2am to 6 am.  That system definitely cannot continue!! Some news of other boats, one  lost a genoa over the side but after after a two hour struggle retrieved it in tact.  Another lost theirs but on retrieval it was wrecked.  Big Blue, the only other catamaran besides Hakuna Matata, stayed behind in Lanzarote to receive their air conditioning unit which they had paid for up front.  It has finally arrived and is defunct……… how horribly frustrating for them to miss the camaraderie of the Rally and still not have a.c.  Neva are on their way with an iridium phone – no SSB – each day we hear a little news of someone.

The ARC started today so 250 odd boats, some J Class will be heading in our direction…….

Today was ‘one of those days’ we could all do without – everyone tired to start off with – 20 knots of wind – waves 8 to 10 feet high – very swelly - it triggered off with a dreadful smell in our cabin which turned out to be the residual of the blocked pipe which had found its way under the floor boards – then Michael noticed that the propeller for the tow generator was missing – our theory is that a large fish went for the attached still lure from the day before (We are now looking for a shark with no teeth!).  Seriously though, that generator gave us around 8 amps per hour (enough to keep the fridges going).  Luckily we have another spare propeller so we reefed in the Twistle to slow down the boat and dug deep into the lockers at the back to find the spare only to be hit by a large following wave which filled the locker (non draining) so that will be a nasty soggy rusty mess by the time we get to Antigua.  Then Michael caught a fish twice the size of the first which was marvellous but in a way we could have done without the pandemonium which accompanies these events!  Then a huge wave just dolloped itself over the back and straight into our cabin and bed – ugh!  Picture the scene, our loo upside down whilst we were still trying to find the source of the smell, sea water everywhere in the aft cabin, all the bedding billowing on deck  trying to dry it out, huge seas, our windiest day, Michael heaving up and down trying to gut the fish, Oscar crashing around in the kitchen trying to cook his next culinary delight, Paul bottom up in the back lockers, and then he noticed the still furled in Twistle rig had destroyed one running block mid way up and was in danger of disinter grating mid air!  Can you imagine?  So rocking and rolling repairs were done to the rigging and then Michael noticed the Hydrovane bracket bolts had worked loose and we were in danger of loosing that too and of course our self steering mechanism………more rocking and rolling repairs…….then Paul got slung across the boat and hurt his hand, arm and leg……..and then the saloon table (now lowered to accommodate Michael as his bed) collapsed as well……Bennett to the rescue with Oscar……..all feeling very sorry for ourselves……..

I felt that a cup of tea and a distribution of my revered Mon Cheries was called for! And a comforting digestive biscuit!  The fish duly got cooked – I even tried to make chips but they weren’t having it either and ended up a sort of soggy, oily goo – hey ho!!  Our bed is remade, a challenge in itself in these conditions, the dinner eaten the washing up done, the Twistle unfurled and we have all licked our wounds.  As night draws in early (at 6.00pm in this part of the world) we have reefed in the Twistle as much as possible to ensure an uneventful night and hope to resume our normal watches and sleep patterns. We are all exhausted.

The positive news is that we covered around 175 miles in the last 24 hours and have been surfing off waves at 11 knots over the ground (as opposed to through the water) – through the water includes other factors like tide with or against you and current with or against you. We are all well, no serious injuries, the weather is great compared to what it could be with the wind in the right direction and tomorrow is another day.

The bad news is the loo still pongs!!