12/12/07 13:00

The grey of the morning has all but been replaced with blue sky. This ESE  wind carries on at 15/20 knots.  I’ve certainly never had this much sea time on the same tack with this much constant speed.  Even if I use my conservative 160/miles per day we will be in Rio in just over 6 days on the 18^th which would be an amazing 15 days in total and it could be better than that.

16:00

Lazy afternoon. Still 9 knots and very little sea. Like being in a film about sailing.

Steve meanwhile has jury-rigged a new method of fridge cooling water removal by cannibalising the Air Con condensate collection system so the fridge seems to be playing again which is just what we need on a hot day.

I finish ”MAMista,” an old Len Deighton book which is a pleasant, mindless way of passing the time.

We slowly sink into a soporific state as this endless tack just goes on and on and on.

I’m going to try to read a real book but I don’t know if my mind will function in these conditions.

20:00

A better sunset tonight than we’ve had for a few days.  We saw the “Green Flash” at that moment when the sun drops completely below the horizon. I didn’t expect to see it as there is land 100 miles to the west and I thought the mountains of Brazil would interfere with the horizon but I didn’t reckon adequately on the curvature of the earth.

21:00

I am seriously confused.  6 nights ago we were visited by a Cheshire Cat New Moon rising in the East.   Tonight that same Moon is setting in the West and it appears to be virtually the same size as it was  6 nights ago which surely is impossible. Either I’m going mad or there’s a partial eclipse at work here just to make me look foolish. The clouds obscure the moon before I can be sure.

13/12/07 2:30 AM

As I come on watch there is a rain squall.  The wind goes off in a huff ENE and the boat slows and rolls so I put a 20 degree course change to stop the rolling.   It only lasts a few minutes, the wind returns to East Force 5 and we are back on course.

9AM

Another Grey morning.  We are more or less level with Salvador which we visited in 2003 with the rally and enjoyed Carnival 500.

Lot’s of little squalls this morning. Stop start stop start. Wind NE/SE//NNE/SSE Eventually it always comes back to East.

11AM

With the time change the 24 hour run will be logged at 11AM instead of noon.

The first 12 hours of this run was 110 miles but the squalls have slowed us a bit, so we’ll have to settle for a 24 hour run of 207 miles.  792 to go.