Position: 41:53:90N 26:16:40W

Fairly quiet day today, motorsailing for much of it, hard on the wind but light breeze. 

Saw a couple of big fin whales, one grey one black, which necessitated a change of course to avoid.  Also saw our first ship, heading north a few miles away.  Talked to Karen M, a Nauticat 42 who are heading to Jersey and are 90 miles to our east, on the SSB – we arranged a sched before we left.

The fridge packed up yesterday but I managed to isolate the fault to the thermostat and so I hard-wired the connections to bypass it.  Then took the thermostat apart and with the help of a screwdriver have managed to bodge it back into life again.  Satisfying to be able to fix it.  Then re-bedded a stanchion bolt in the forepeak which was leaking – obviously got too much time on my hands!  Nutmeg looks tired – she is going to need a damn good clean and a bit of a polish when she gets home.

The wind has now piped up to a SSE 4 so we are barreling along at 6-7 kts and pointing towards the English Channel, 900 miles away.  Very dark although David saw a sliver of moon earlier so that should help in the coming days.

That’s all for now.