31:53’31N 012:55’16W

 

He lied!  He absolutely promised that we would never have the spinnaker up at night!  Ok it was only the small spinnaker – one that was kindly donated to us by Nick –really for use on the First 35 – but actually perfect for all this downwind weather as it is so small for the boat and far less broachy.  It looks very odd and also has a completely different sail number (a K one), and our big blue spinnaker would be far too much.  However when Stephen and Tim Sherston (not Rogers Mike!) did the first night watch they kept it up and it was making the whole boat shudder as it kept filling and collapsing – then they jibed it a couple of times and it was so noisy and  uncomfortable I got no sleep at all!  Stephen was adamant that it was going to be up all night to maintain our 7/8 knots – thank the lord that the wind then dropped and there was the joyous sound of it being dropped down the companion way – I quickly raced to help pack it and put it away!

 

Apart from that actually quite a dull night – after sausages and mash for supper – no ships, no dolphins, no shooting stars but a lovely moonlight night.  We are all getting quite tired from the watches and Stephen has a plan to change the watch system tonight so we have just one person on for a couple of hours and then 6 hours off – which will be fine unless the wind picks up.  Quite slow progress 279 miles to go to Las Palmas – we hope to be there around Sunday lunchtime – which I think is just when the ARC leaves, would be quite fun to watch the start!  Weather quite hot this morning – I’ll need my sun hat – but the clouds built throughout the day – I’m trying to remember what each type means from our ‘yacht mistresses’ exams – I need Mrs Maltby’s help!  When I was off watch between 4 and 8am this morning I thought I felt a whale under the boat – Stephen says it was just the boom shuddering the boat ...... Graham says that Jenny has found out that they get angry if you have red antifouling so that’s a relief as we have blue – so maybe they won’t see us (like Pooh Bear pretending to be a cloud!).  Tim’s beard is coming on nicely but he’s upset that it is so grey, he’s now talking about shaving it off in the Canaries so I will be sure to take photos beforehand!  Graham has just had a full wash down on the front of the boat using buckets of sea water following by a small ration of fresh water (sadly we couldn’t get the Sea Savon Dudley recommended but he still looks and smells very clean!)

 

Eating far too much!