Position: 32:17.9N 49:39.9W

A pleasant day so far.  Having come off watch at 6am I took the opportunity to stay in my bunk until 10am and rose quietly to find Stephen changing the engine’s oil having racked up 50 hours since it was replaced in Martinique.  The wind has come and gone although it is consistent in direction to within about 30 degrees.  Our noon position took us another 147 miles closer to the Azores and it looks as if we have crossed the halfway mark, in distance terms at least.  Exactly when this blog will reach you is a mute point as we seem to have inexplicably run out of pre-paid minutes.  As we only log on twice a day max, and then only to send/receive emails it is all a mystery. We did finally discover a customer service number to Iridium which delivered a feint voice in Australia offering assistance.  After much shouting and asking him to speak up Stephen asked me if it might be more convenient for me if I were to hold the handset the other way around at which point the conversation was much easier save for the skipper falling about laughing on the cabin floor at my discomfort.  He will receive an extra weevil in his ship’s biscuit tonight.

 

Last night we sailed by hand through the night following the wind through its fluctuations with success and good distance in the right direction.  Stephen has a rather sophisticated watch that allows him to keep time in two zones, GMT (for use with the sextant) and DBT (Das Boot Time for use with the crew and watch system).  As I prepared to finish my first watch and go below last night at midnight, fully expecting David to emerge with a polite good morning, I was disconcerted to find instead Stephen levitating up through the companionway in uncommonly good humour having mixed his Das Boot with his Greenwich.  David was fairly un-phased as he also appeared 2 minutes later, murmuring something about techno-twits, so I wondered off to my bunk and left them to sort it all out amid good natured laughter. The fabulous tuna is gone and the line has been unresponsive today so we are back to the fridge and the larder, all of which are well stocked.  The first hand of bananas is ripe with the second 2 days behind. Other than that it is now a supply of two potatoes, a bunch of carrots, one onion and a globe of garlic in the non-chilled fresh food department.  The second to last cake is in the oven after which sugar supplies will be exhausted and we will be eating more bread from then on.  Still toast in Graham’s smart toaster is something good to look forward to with a fine supply of Grace’s Quidhampton marmalade nestling in the cupboard.

 

We now have only 8 knots of wind and are making 4 knots but the wind builds from time to time and we are optimistic that we are in the right place to pick up the bottom end of the depressions coming from the west and morale is very high.  The night time moon is over halfway to full so when the clouds scud away the night is bright and kindly.  At the moment there is a spectacular halo of wispy cloud around the sun which the navigator explained heralds nothing at all.  He tells us that it is caused by ice crystals in the upper atmosphere refracting the sunlight but the good doctor and I seek confirmation as this was delivered with rather a lot of conviction.

 

We all send you the best from mid-Atlantic and look forward to your emails when they come.