17:38N 45:04W
Ondina
Sat 8 Dec 2007 18:02
We’re well over halfway now. We were going to celebrate with a drink but
none of us really felt like it so the boat remains dry – we’ll look
forward to that first rum punch even more when we cross the finishing
line. The wind remains fairly strong although it has steadied a bit at
around 20 knots which is fine, but the swell and waves remain big which
makes life on board interesting. Charlie was cooking a fry up this
morning and felt a bit hot in the galley, so opened one of the small
windows above it, just as a wave swept along the deck and flooded not just
our fried eggs but the whole saloon floor – so we pumped it out, cleaned
it all up and had scrambled eggs instead. Another wave sent the PC I’m
writing on flying across the cabin but luckily it still works! We heard
that there was a mayday from a catamaran ahead of us. Their mast came
down and presumably punctured one of the hulls as they abandoned and it
sunk – they are now safely on another boat. Gear failure is a constant
worry which is why if anything we are under-stressing the boat with less
sail up than we could be flying, but I’d rather get in a day later than
risk the rig. The plotter indicates that we have less than a 1000 miles
to go so we feel as if we’re sort of on the home run and at current
calculations should be in on Friday pm or Sat am in a weeks time. Morale
is OK although yesterday everyone seemed a bit down, a combination of Mark
and Charlie feeling queasy and uncomfortable rolling. We had some great
halfway presents – thanks J to yet more chocolate… Sarah my woolly hat
(probably more suited to skiing than the tropics) and Tracy for Mark’s
book on trivia – talking of which we played trivial pursuit again and
Charlie won – we’d like to play cards but it’s too windy and they would
just blow overboard. So hope you are all having a good weekend – our
speed has slowed so I’m off to let a bit more sail out - Mike