Midnight we had made it as far as 17:14.67N 39:18.60W – Thursday 11th of December, 2008.

Engine Time – 0 Hours

As I came up onto deck with my coffee first thing in the morning behind us was another yacht with a full spread of sail, it looked amazing as he flew past us. Anyhow he called us up and we chatted for a while, he had been at sea for 11 days and I was the first boat he had seen. We compared weather notes and the two of us had an almost identical plan to had south down below the 17^th degree of latitude. There was a big storm from on its way and I did not fancy being out in it.

Special comments by Fiona:  We spotted another yacht this morning just after breakfast.  I was rapt when he was about half a mile behind us and called us up to have a chat.  The skipper was French with four on board, also heading to the Caribbean.  Ben made me laugh after his conversation with the other skipper over the radio, when turned to me and said “he must have spotted our flag to know we were Australian”.  I pointed out that it probably wasn’t the flag, the give away was probably when Ben started the conversation with “Yeah G’day mate” and ended by saying “No worries mate”. 

Day 142

Traveling Direction – West

Wind Direction – East – moderate

Swell – Very lumpy and horrible

Average Speed –  5.4

Top Speed – 7.4 Knots Through the water

Distance Covered – 129.8 Nautical Miles