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35o 08.5’ North 46o 10.5’ West
Fish caught – still none
Tonight we will pass the halfway point and will be celebrating with a huge party and hope you will all be able to join us – but please bring a bottle, the fair weather Happy Hours are playing havoc with our cellar.
The weather continues to astound us with clear skies, warm southerly breezes on our beam at an almost perfect 18-22kts and the gentle seas more appropriate to a summer’s day on either The Solent or Long Island Sound. None of us dare tempt fate by suggesting that it might last all the way to Punta Delgada. Deep down I have an uneasy feeling, with another week to go, I fear that a rude and sharp awakening is just around the corner.
Stop press: great excitement on the sun deck yesterday afternoon; Brian, pointing urgently at the horizon, jaw working soundlessly until eventually raising the shout….”Whales”; the ‘spot’ of the trip so far. A pod of three Humpbacks gently cruised by on their migration north west entertaining us briefly with water spouts and ‘fluking’.
Jem surges on at between 7 & 8 knots and continues to look after us. I have such confidence in her that I can even forgive the little tantrum during the first night out. I have just about recovered from the flooding incident, it could have so easily ended very differently and jolly nearly did. One of the yachts sailing with us said we should think positively, not all yachts crossing the Atlantic have such a well washed engine room!
What with warm days, night watches bathed in the silvery light of a full moon (la la) and the ‘distance to go’ ticking steadily down the team’s personal anxieties are being replaced with something approaching cockiness. At Happy Hour last night the talk turned to the rough and windy passage up to Bermuda and, laughingly, what excuses were being prepared to allow them to jump ship before this leg!
Now pleased that they have all stuck with it (after all, what would they have told everyone back home) and feeling confident that we might actually make it without a Donald Crowhurst incident the team are finding other things to worry about:
Mike: - LL Bean’s (UK Black’s) ‘returns policy’ for the large quantity of arctic clothing bought just for this trip but now strewn unused around the forepeak. Also the Portuguese language tapes that remain unopened; “how do I order that first Diet Pepsi?”
Brian: Suffolk Angling’s ‘returns policy’ for all the tackle purchased yet still ‘untroubled’ by anything pelagic – “Hmmm what lure to use for a Whale?” Not to mention, of course, the search for that Holiest of Grails; the perfect bread roll.
Jim: Was that really a Wilson’s Petrel and if so is does it count as a ‘lifer’? Is it possible to survive 14 days without a single financial statistic, graph or chart; “I wish Mark would let me study his weather charts; I wonder if the weather influences the price of gold?”
Me: I worry constantly; the only thing I don’t worry about is running aground, it’s 3 miles deep here! (Vertically challenged ex RN navigators who may read this can keep their ‘clever’ comments to themselves)
One final thing – we love receiving your feedback, comments (however rude) and messages (Frankly we have bu**er all else to do) but if you want to send us something of a more personal nature please send it to yachtjem@ocens.net rather than putting a comment on the blog, unless of course you want everyone to know about little Charlotte’s bowel problem!
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