Day 36 - Leg 3 Day 7 at Sea

Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Thu 30 Jul 2015 09:40
We have been cracking along for the past 3 days and are making good progress.  We have passed the 1,000 mile mark and around 1,400 to go to Reunion.  If we keep up this sort of pace, we should arrive in Reunion around 07 August which will be pretty good going.
 
The bad thing is, that after 4 weeks of relatively easy cooking in the galley, the change in wind angle and sail plan does make things somewhat more challenging.  The language coming out of the galley for the past 3 days has been somewhat blue to say the least, mine included.  Unfortunately, we can expect much more similar sailing over the next 2 months so I am thinking of starting a swear box!! 
 
Since departing the Cocos Keelings, we have had one day and night of squalls which gave the boat a good wash down.  Also the temperature has started to drop slightly.  Usually you sleep on top of the bed with an electric fan on, to cool you down.  Last night I actually had to put a sheet on - it will be thermals next!! 
 
Because we are travelling west, the nights are getting longer and the mornings darker.  We should have put our clocks back an hour when we left CK but, to enable us to eat dinner around 19.30 in daylight, we put them forward instead.  We are actually on boat time which, as long as we all have synchronised watches etc , is a purely subjective thing.  What we should do is, every 600 miles, move our clocks back an hour, so that we arrive in Reunion at the correct time.  However, we will probably change once en route and then move onto Reunion time the day before we arrive. 
 
Yesterday, Sam thought that he saw a whale fin, but nobody else did so it doesn't count.  Apart from that, nothing to report apart from lots of sea, waves, sky, stars etc.  Just another day at sea.
 
Update re fishing - We were thinking about hauling in our line as it was dusk.  Just then, we heard the not-so-familiar sound of the fishing line running out.  Sam jumped up & put on the fishing harness & started to reel in.  We furled away the genoa to slow the boat down and, as the fish got closer, we could see a 5kg tuna on the line.  Sam reeled it to the back step of the boat, Paul gaffed it, it was lifted onto the back step at which point, the hook fell out, the tuna thrashed its tail, leapt off the gaff and back into the water.  The big debate now is who was to blame - the person who didn't hook it properly or the person who didn't gaff it properly.  Sam's choice of words was interesting but I just fell over laughing.  Tinned salmon risotto it is for dinner then!!!