23:18.66N 20:20.69W

Sun 12^th & Mon 13^th Dec

Firstly i should explain that the use of the engine on Saturday was mainly because the weather forecasts all showed that we needed to be a good 300 miles south of the Canaries as soon as possible and with virtually no wind (and that was on the nose) we like others resorted to the ‘iron topsail’. As it has turned out the forecast has changed now and instead of meeting big headwind later in the week, it now suggests a complete absence of wind altogether due to a strong blow sweeping across the Atlantic just to the north of us. Hey ho, we will just have to see what turns up!

The second important point I must make is to highlight the wonderful service we had from Nautica Nordest which is one of three very helpful chandleries in Santa Cruz, Tenerife. When I came to realise that our electronic charts did not include Cape Verde I went off in search of the correct electronic chart card (Africa) but to no avail. I then asked about paper charts as a back up to what we did have and again drew a blank everywhere.

Then on Friday night just as we were about to settle down to supper and an early night, we heard a voice calling for the captain. When I emerged I found the main man from the Nordest chandlery standing there. He asked if we still needed a chart and when I said yes, he very excitedly told me that he had just had a parcel delivered as he was closing the shop in the evening, which had come from Imray maps and with luck there might be a Cape Verde chart enclosed. Together we went up to his van parked by the marina office and sure enough when he cut through the tape, there amongst this old back order was the very chart we needed. That really is going the extra mile for a sale!

As it happens, Nordest are also the agents for Air Breeze and Air X wind turbines and they were involved in a very complicated arrangement involving the American manufacturers, the German distributers, an incompetent Turkish agent and ourselves. Very simply the Turkish agent took it upon himself to supply the wrong turbine which we had installed in Marmaris last April. We were not aware of the change to our order until we were sailing from Israel to Malta and complained about how noisy the unit was, only to be told by the Americans that we had the Air X which is noisy! We protested that we had ordered the Air Breeze (identical casting),  our paperwork indicating exactly that  but the reality was different! So we asked what could be done. They replied that they would put the problem in the hands of the German distributer for Europe and that they would undertake to replace the unit with a brand new correct one. Much easier said than done with us sailing remorselessly across the Med and then out into the Atlantic on our way to the Caribbean. However the arrangements were made and despite my reservations about all this really happening, two engineers working for Nordest turned up in Santa Cruz Marina, Tenerife armed with the new correct unit...... except that it wasn’t quite the right unit as the Turkish agent had supplied incorrect information as well and so these guys were standing there with a 12 volt unit, but Serafina is 24 volts. One phone call later and the engineers were driving south across the island to meet their boss who was now heading north from the far end and they exchange units in a car park half-way and a couple of hours later we had our new wind turbine in place. As I said above – wonderful service.

So back to the trip. We motored slowly through Saturday night until around 6 am on Sunday morning when there was just enough breeze to spare us any more of the engine and with the full cutter rig set we began sailing again. Our speed varied from 2 knots to 5 knots at first but gradually through the day the wind increased and we reached a respectable 8 knots before it began to die again. It was around 3 pm that we caught our first Mahi Mahi which is a superb, very colourful fish renowned for its very tasty firm white flesh. R & J were treated to our well rehearsed landing, gutting and chopping up routine although it was slightly different from dealing with a tuna – Sarah had her first fairly successful attempt at filleting. (Where were you Lesley when we needed you?)

As we settled into the night watches the wind eased and came further round to our stern making progress very slow and noisy as the sails and spars banged and shuddered as Serafina continued to roll in the Atlantic swell without the breeze to steady her. At 2 am we decided to revert to the engine for a few hours, but as dawn broke there was barely 5 knots of breeze, but it was at least a beautiful sunny day.

Around 10 am were visited by possibly as many as 20 Atlantic Spotted dolphins who spent quite a while playing under and around our bow before carrying on their journey.

We listened into the Rum Runners Radio Net on the SSB and although we could hear everyone clearly, we were unable to transmit our position and details to them all as our SSB radio does not seem to like the 6000 MHz frequency;  we had been warned that this was likely to occur by the Maltese engineer. What they were all saying was that they too had despaired of the lack of wind and were mostly motoring gently at the moment.

The day stayed gloriously sunny but the wind remained fairly elusive until the early evening when despite the prediction for a light and variable breeze, we were treated to a good 15 knots from the east which allowed us to record an impressive 70 miles in 12 hours.

Lunch was the Mahi Mahi cooked on Sarah’s new iron griddle with baked potatoes and a homemade salsa. The fresh fish was fabulous and to round off the day, Sarah also produced a superb fish chowder with the remaining pieces of the fish for our dinner.