Dear Family and Friends,

 

1st August 2015

 

As I write the date I am reminded of how much we have travelled, seen and experienced even since the start of the year. Our past calendar is full of memories of places, experiences and frustrations laced together with threads of sailing.

 

We have 336 miles to go to our next stop, Palmerstone Reef, as I write. Life on board slips into the familiar routine of sailing, eating, sleeping, housekeeping. We are nursing some contaminated fuel again which we think may have caused the generator to stop the other day. We have treated it with diesel bug remover; it could be condensation in the fuel tank too and Alan has changed the filters. There’s always something!

 

On the housekeeping front we were recommended to get a vacuum packer and sealer for foods especially those for the freezer. Back in the UK I purchased an Andrew James food vacuum sealer, absolutely marvellous. Our freezer is prone to cause freezer burn quickly, completely eliminated with vacuum sealing. It also extends the life of fresh produce, you can portion cooked foods and cook them in the bag from frozen, does dry stores too, however did I manage without one!

 

And while I am on the subject of food, again I hear you mutter, I would like to nominate my UK export food hero! You find this product in some far flung places where you may have trouble getting basic commodities but its often on the shelf! Any ideas? My UK food export hero is L & P Worcestor Sauce! Jordan’s cereals do alright in the larger supermarkets too.

 

2nd August 2015

 

After a very long sleep in today I am now wide awake! Probably too much so to sleep off watch overnight. It takes a good week to get into the swing of watches.

 

We have finally seen some sun after 3 days of blanketing grey clouds. Despite the latitude it is still quite cool, by day we have fleeces on and by night warm jackets, hats, blankets, hot drinks the whole 9 yards! The winds are a fresh 10-20 knots which makes arriving at Palmerstone reef in daylight a fine judgement. Last night we reefed right down and made 4-5 knots of speed otherwise our arrival at PR would have been in darkness. It looks like we will be there Tuesday am. 212 Nm to go as I write. It is a daily ritual to mark off your progress on the chart, when you can only see more sea and sky it does you good!

 

3rd August 2015

 

I am posting blogs every few days at present. Maybe we haven’t got our comms set up right but it takes so long to up and download emails via the satellite phone, its really expensive in minutes.

 

The sun was short lived yesterday, ever since we have strengthening winds, 20-27 knots from the early hours, beam on swell sending us rolling from side to side with tons of water thundering against the hull and across the deck. Its all very tiring and quite hard to make our course for Palmerstone as it is now up wind. Reports from the net suggest that anchoring in the reef will give some protection but may cause us to be weatherbound for several days. So we will soldier on, 114 NM as I write today, ETA still tomorrow morning. We will have a look at the most upto date weather and the reef itself before deciding what to do.

 

All our best,

 

Lynne and Alan