Midnight we had made it as far as 16:20.26N 51:43.37W – Thursday 18th of December, 2008.

Engine Time – 3.61Hours

Becalmed, Sails in, Engine on, Wind, Sails out, Engine off, Becalmed, Sail in, Engine On, Wind Engine off, Sail out……Can some one help me from going crazy please just blow.

Breakfast did however deliver itself to me on deck, check out my little friend, he is a flying fish and we constantly see schools of the things fly past our bow while we cruise along. It is amazing to watch them fly and fly they do, I have seen 20 or so at a time do at least 100 meters each in the air and they change direction as they go. They land on the water and then take off again. They are pretty cool but not really my cup of tea to eat, that is only because I have only fun them dried and sort of shriveled up. Anyway I am after that big fish. I do love though how they make Fiona scream during the night while she is on watch, she can not bring herself to sit out in the open after the last incident of one landing at her feet in the pitch black and scaring her half to death.

The water tank ran out today, well half of it did any how which is pretty good going. We carry 455 Liters of water in to separate stainless steel tanks under the couches in the saloon. We have another 150 Liters in small bottles and Jerry’s. I have installed a shut off valve in the centre of the main tank so I can regulate how much we have left. Now ½ and what I do is open the valve let the tanks equalize and then shut it back off, that should mean I have a ¼ of a tank in each once half has gone but I was never really that good at math’s. We had made our 227.5 Liters last 17days from when we last filled up, this includes the 2 days we spent in Tarrafal before we set off. So at the moment we are living off 13.4 Liters a day or 6.7 Liters each per day. This is about a gallon each and a tiny bit more. This is pretty impressive if you ask me considering we do not have a salt water pump or tap onboard. We wash the dishes once a day and we bath every day. When I say bath I mean fill a tub with water get the soap and a sponge and scrub our manky bodies. We also have been drinking a lot of water due to the heat; I think an easy 3 liters each per day would be about right.

Special comments by Fiona:  I’m slowly getting used to those funny looking flying fish.  As long as they don’t come any-where near me at night!  Of course Ben loves them.

Talking about our water tanks, we’ve had to learn how to really conserve water.  Our daily bath consists of approx 300ml’s of water in a little tub.  It’s enough to get relatively clean.  The only thing I haven’t been able to do is wash my hair for 2 weeks, this may not seem a big deal to blokes but I think girls would sympathize with me on that one!  I’m not bothered that much to be honest, it’s just as easy tying my hair back and not having to worry about it.  So yes, at the moment, mangy/feral is exactly what Ben and I are!

Day 149

Traveling Direction – West

Wind Direction – South East, then South, then North, then North East. – All over the place

Swell – Confused but small.

Average Speed – 4.5

Top Speed –?

Distance Covered – 107 Nautical Miles