Oh what a beautiful morning after a restless night.  The whiffle of wind had the sails cracking and bobbling about noisily all night.  Bob has been reluctant to keep up the cruising chute at night because of tales of broken things and dismastings in squalls that whoop down on you unexpectedly.  In consultation with the crew and the Health and Safety Officer (the person who has nothing better to do than nag about life jackets apparently) we have agreed to give it a go tonight with risk mitigation in place, namely “just let go of that rope there if anything untoward happens”.

It hasn’t been the squalls that we have had to worry about whooping down unexpectedly but fishing boats with no AIS to forewarn you of their presence.  We are, as a result of an embarrassingly close encounter, being better shepherds keeping a watch at night.

We are settling into a gentle routine of lounging about in the fabulous sunshine, reading, puzzles and watching DVDs.  We have our own film club discussions once we’ve watched each DVD with intelligent, intellectual scrutiny of each.  Our analysis ranges from the cerebral “What was that all about?” to the critical “It was rubbish”.

Our magic fishing, with no lines and no bait, delivered another two flying fish on the deck but we don’t like to eat them and restore them to the deep with due solemnity.

Well only 4 more sleeps until Christmas.  I better go and check that the sprouts haven’t gone mouldy.