Yesterday afternoon (Tuesday) was pretty uneventful.  Pretty rough still, so a trial to do anything needing physical coordination, but with a lifetime of such lack of coordination, it wasn’t too bad  My salopettes now have a distinctive ginger smell having worn an entire cup of steaming ginger tea at 3 am.  Still, it washed off some of the ingrained curry from Monday evening.  The wind remained at Force 6 or 7 through the night to keep us and the autopilot on its toes.  We launched the water tow generator in the middle of the night, tiring of constantly running the engine to feed the autopilot beast with juice.  It sounds from below very like a very peaceful snoring, so Harriet shot out from her bunk in a panic thinking i had fallen asleep on my watch.  

Watch keeping was exciting  with the occasional wave creeping up and jumping into the cockpit or over the coachroof, as would a sly and cowardly dog slink behind you, all sweetness and light, wagging it’s tail and bearing it’s gums before going for a bite on your bum.   All ports (and even the companion way) had to be closed to avoid too much water getting down below.  Bellow decks was very cosy - and we both read a lot and listened to music on our on-watches.  Not much traffic around.  A tanker passed 5 miles away according to AIS, but we never saw her.  

Talking of dogs, life on board centres around meals and treats.  We ate some of the excellent bread (photograph included below) and had Harriet’s signature sandwiches for lunch.  Supper was new potatoes with chorizo, green beans and asparagus.  Later today we will roast our last piece of fresh meat - a leg of lamb.  Tonight is a celebration.  We passed the half way mark in the night, in terms of miles to our destination.  Admiralty charts are 3ft 6” square, so, outside a RN frigate (and particularly on a small boat), they have to be folded down the middle to fit the chart table.  We are approaching this fold, which is a psychological lift, signalling good progress.  So, for this evening we will dress up for the Crease Party.  We may even have a glass of wine to wash down the Stugeron (anti-sea sickness pills.)

Dawn is appreciably later, even just a couple of hundred miles south.  Had to get up in the dark for my 5am trick for the first time.  

Meanwhile, the other I (Harriet) just took the liberty of a four hour sleep - accidentally.  

Daddy has done the majority of the cooking so far (funny that), but I will make sure I beat him to cooking / bread making more for the rest of this trip!  The wind seems to have died down earlier than expected, but the waves are hanging over the pushpin on the back of the boat like something out of Perfect Storm (slight exaggerration).  Mummy this is your sort of hell!  Definitely comforting to have other AZAB boats around us, and adds a little direct competition as you can see how fast they are going on AIS and try to do a little better… Although I’m becoming attached to “Far Fetched” who we’ve been neck and neck with for a few days now.

Hopefully the sun will come out a bit later so I can top up "Scherzo’s Schnozzle” as my red nose has been coined. I may be clean, but I look wild.

Totals:  Miles run since start 654nm.  Miles to go along direct course: 540.  Noon to noon run 166 nm. 


harry when the weather was a bit nicer You can see who does the sailing around here


.   room with a view