From somewhere in the Atlantic ocean. 

It is indeed strange to be completely surrounded by a gently heaving sea for as far as the eye can see.    The sun just keeps shining and the wind is quietly blowing us along.  The dolphins that we have seen have been too busy fishing to come and play, there are no birds this far out and the only things passing by have been a large chunk of wood and what we are utterly convinced was a mine.  We know there are big boys lurking out there but we only ever see them on the GPS screen over 20 miles away.

We have often wondered what people do all day on their boats on these trips, no farm, no Country Fair to organise, no tv, no internet and we are finding out.   Bob has had a very busy day: cleaning the chrome, fixing the sticking anchor pin, taking a shower, watching the King’s Speech (exceedingly good) and is now making us all tea.  I seem to spend my day reading avidly, staring dreamily at the waves, doing killer Kakuro puzzles for a bit of brain gym, plotting what to prepare and cook for lunch and supper.  I also sniff out untoward smells, track them down and take decisive action.  What I had thought was someone’s unwashed laundry turned out to be an utterly disgusting rotting cabbage which was summarily flung overboard.

Stuart has learned his flags, read every boaty magazine from cover to cover and acted on their every word including briefing us on improvements that we should make should we turn turtle (please not, it looks horrendous and the fridge gets emptied on your head) and is now studying sail trim which means that he keeps checking out his newly learned theories by fiddling with the sails.  Haley spends a lot of time helming just because she likes to.  She is particularly happy today because she has heard that she has got sponsorship for her university course from Trinity House which is an absolute coup.  Being in loco parentis we are exceedingly proud of her!  Actually it turns out that her grandfather is the same age as Bob so perhaps that should be in loco grandparentis.