We are half way there!  It is now as far to get to Grenada as to return so there's no going back now whatever else happens.

 

There have been a few dodgy moments when we have had to make some quick decisions and improvise some repairs; but thanks to our talented crew we have overcome the difficulties and we are all still smiling.

 

The first few days  passed without much happening of note.  The weather was cloudy and pretty cold.  We were all glad of the duvets and the pre-cooked soups and casseroles to warm us up.  Most of us were feeling slightly less hungry than usual until about day 3 when we got used to the rolling motion - and it has been extremely rolly!  We have lost count of the number of drinks that have gone flying and the swearing from the the galley has been frankly shocking.  All of us are covered in bruises but Paul has the most impressive ones from when he fell from the top bunk when the lee cloth attachment failed as the boat rolled!  Richard has taken a couple of swipes to the face which fortunately has not detracted from his natural beauty, in fact some would say its an improvement. 

 

So far we have seen dolphins, flying fish, a turtle and have had close contact with a big 2 metre swordfish and sight of but less contact with a Mahi Mahi, which brings us onto the subject of fishing........

 

The fishing competition was established before we set off.  the crew purposely bought a bigger rod than Greg's and some pretty impressive lures.  Greg was pitching his favorite squid Cyril against Katie Price (the pink sparkly squid) and Nasty Bob (the green one).  Sadly, Cyril, Katie and Nasty Bob have all now been eaten whole along with the hook line and sinker, leaving a bit of sad dangling line. On day 7 Greg all but landed a Mahi Mahi which cleverly twisted and freed itself at the last moment to massive groans on deck.  We have a great picture of the lure leaving its mouth so Cyril lived to lure for one more day!

 

 

The crew needed this bit of positive excitement following a few days when some mechanical problems had emerged.  We lost the auto-helm in the evening of day 6 whilst we were all watching the movie Free Solo, which caused quite a few problems and necessitated everyone learning to feel and steer Viridian in confused and rolling 4 metre waves in the dark which took a bit of getting used to.  Richard and Kevin made a repair the next day which involved sawing up bits of metal with Greg's 'dremmel' and repurposing some bolts from the davits.  All was well and we were quietly celebrating the following evening when we lost steering again just as we were attempting to watch Free Solo for the second evening running.  This turned out to be an electronic problem on the Raymarine kit which required investigation in daylight so another night of hand steering descended and clouded the mood a bit.  As we had lost a lot of instruments at this point we did discuss whether we needed to return to Cape Verde for repairs but reminded ourselves that these electronics are relatively new and people have sailed perfectly well without them for centuries so we could manage.  And don't forget we have Kevin on board with his sextant and astro-navigation skills - no pressure! 

 

The following morning the dynamic duo got onto problem solving again and miraculously managed to get most of the electronics working but we are still without AIS.  That means other ships can not see us and we can't see them on AIS but as we haven't seen another boat for the past 4 days we aren't feeling too anxious about it and we have got the radar back which is the main thing. We will get repairs when we get to Grenada if we can find a Raymarine specialist.

 

So we have decided like all sailors that a bit of superstition is involved here and Free Solo has become our Jonah!  We are not going to watch the rest of it until we are safely moored up in Grenada.

 

For the moment things are a bit more settled.  We treated ourselves yesterday to a Sunday breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon and crispy onions on toast, then after de-frosting the freezer and cleaning out the paella infested fridge and freezer we had a lazy day in the now tropical sunshine before having full Sunday roast chicken with roast potatoes, Yorkshires, veg and gravy.  Our food supplies are lasting very well; in fact we can probably keep going for at least 6 weeks! We played shithead in the evening and sadly three of us had to drink the Prickly Pear penalty liqueur. 

 

As I write this the boys have got out the spinnaker and we have jibed for the track to Grenada. We have made good progress and have seen very high boat speeds when we have been surfing down the waves.  As always there is a competitive element going on.  Kevin had the fastest speed at 14.6 knots a couple of days ago but was overtaken by Richard yesterday steering down a massive wave at 15.4 knots!  We are generally averaging 8 knots so unless we are becalmed we should be there in approx another 10 days.