Day 8
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29:47.000n
63:11.000w Distance to home:
3098 miles Distance run
today: 87 miles Course
350 Wind has died.
We are using the engine
and moving towards Bermuda and as we have a couple of minor gear issues we have
decided to call in and fix them before the big push for home across the
Atlantic. We should be there on
Friday morning. Domestic
Jez and Tim watched a
film in the main cabin yesterday with the boat rolling in the swells and a
couple of pauses to track ships and speak to them on the vhf. It’s getting busier out here but it’s
all commercial traffic so far with no yachts sighted since passing
Will decided that a
couple of hours additional sleep was more important and retired to his pit. Is this training for his impending
return to Uni? It’s too noisy now for
movies now. The diesel is thumping
away and making it hard to think.
On the other hand, the sea is flat calm so there is a chance to clean up
and get things done that were too much effort in the big, rolling swells we
normally get. Or perhaps time for a game of Scrabble! Bread production is back
on an even keel as Tim was on duty this morning following the production of
Chinese Beef with vegetables for tea last night. A lot of our fresh veg is looking a bit
dodgy so we are trying to eat it before it rots. Potatoes, onions, garlic and cucumber
are fine (some of you will know Jez’s views on cucumber) but the carrots are on
their last legs and the melon is not far behind. Eating rotting melon isn’t like
eating a bruised banana and just a bit softer, it’s worse than eating a banana
skin! I understand that it’s
been sunny back home but the crew here are feeling the result of travelling 800
miles north in a week and are all now wearing jumpers in the cockpit in the
evening. We are trying to work out
if we have enough layers to stay warm in another 3 weeks or
so. William has had to endure
Tim and Jez’s music tastes this week but that was pushed to a new level as Jez
broke out his pod cast selection last night. We all have common ground with some of
the sailing and general knowledge stuff but listening to the Desert Island
Disc’s selections of Ben Ainslie and Eric “Winkle” Brown could have been a step
too far. As it happens, I think we
got away with it! The QI pod cast, “There’s no such thing as fish”, has been
highly amusing during the evenings and full of interesting random facts that
tend to be forgotten by the morning. Cards have made it out
into the cockpit, we started off with rummy with all of us knowing how to play
it was a good place to start until we discovered that maybe rummy varied in
difficulty and complexity from region to region, Jez being from
Oxfordshire/Bucks way, his version was acknowledged but put to one side when we
realised its best to hold as many cards as you can on a boat that moves and is
(sometimes) windy. Not that this game lasted long as after only three rounds (of
which Wills was winning) we changed the game to ‘knock out whist’ a game Jez
introduced and Wills remembers playing with Grandad when he was younger. The
skipper was more successful at this game and so it lasted slightly longer.
Sailing
Winds went light and
flukey on us yesterday and we tried various approaches to make sure that the
Monitor self steering could still handle things. A full poled out genoa was the best
option we found through the day but Tim had to hand steer for some of his watch
last night and Jez eventually gave up about 2am and started the
engine. There were 2 big ships
close by at the time, a tanker on it’s way to We were a bit surprised
to hear Bermuda Radio a couple of times on the VHF this morning at a range of
206 miles talking to a French yacht entering St Georges channel to the
harbour. Either they have a really
serious transmitter and aerial or there was something odd with the atmospherics
– Em if you get time can you ask your dad whether vhf will skip on the
ionosphere. We don’t have the
science and are reverting to “google by text”. Natural
History We continue to harvest
flying fish from the deck each morning but none have been worth a meal for
us. Our mate the Skua has
been back and we have also had a couple of Tropic Birds ( just after we sent the
blog saying that we are now off their patch ). Todays
responses Em – It wasn’t a great
loaf but it was still better than one of my normal efforts. I’m told that you are showing off with
Banana Bread production at home. Lizzie – Guides without
Faye for a second week. You must be
missing her a bit but I don’t really think that Mollie will know I’ve gone yet
as long as you keep feeding her. Mum tells me that it’s my
turn to do the next maths homework.
Do you think you can get the questions down to 160 characters
? Joe – Come on, more on
emu please. You can’t leave it
there. See you “not to soon” too
! 11 – 0 sounds like you
stacked up all the best players on your team. Not sure that’s
fair. SNAS- Hi Shaun and the
rest of T1, It’s a tough call as both have their pros and cons, Jonny has been
great on the social media side of things this year, but then again that gets
annoying when he continually asks you to like something or pushes for votes.
Mum – Good to hear you
have nearly finished the cards how many have you done? Also where are you going
away to? Quilting in the summer!? What about my jumper you’re knitting? Loads of
love xxxx Bye for now
Sadie |