17/1/08 14:00

Steve and I had a ceremonial HOT soup for lunch, the first of many to come.

I discovered Nik throws away the  first and last slices of a bread loaf, the heels or crusts.

I don’t think it’s for good luck, it seems he’s never heard of anyone actually eating them.

I don’t know if this is an odditiy of Finland or just peculiar to Nik, but then he’s never eaten an olive before, until last night. Apparently it’s a Finnish thing, says Nik.

Grey sea. Grey Sky. Grey rain. Ugh.

We turn off the cockpit fridge as there’s no danger of anything getting warm in it for the next few months.

15:00

Wind goes WSW Force 4, and we’re able to sail around 7 knots.  Still very grey.

Nik has his usual lunch: 4 hot dogs on 2 hot dog rolls.  I don’t know where he finds them. Steve spends quite some time trying to photograph the birds. Nik and I are amused as everytime he puts his camera away, a big bird comes very close to the boat and by the time he’s grt his camera out again, the bird has flown.

20:00

We’re motoring again. The sun actually comes out.  We thought it was lost. 8 o’clock at night and it’s the warmest it’s been all day.  You can sit in the cockpit without a hat and gloves

.

21:15

We’re sailing again. Heeling a bit but making over 7 knots.  For dinner, the Sou Chef offered up undercooked Wahoo and the Chef cooked it a bit more although Nik being stubborn insisted on eating his as it came. There is yet another big slab of Wahoo to go.

We might save it until we are 5 on board after Ushuaia.

18/1/08 3:30 AM

Broken cloud. Some showers. Still sailing around 7 knots.  Actually the boat speed varies from 6 to 8 knots as the wind angle wanders about.

11:00AM

Bits of welcome sunshine this morning. We’re still sailing to windward.  When  I ordered the boat, Moody’s were instructed to provide a sink in Steve’s forward cabin as per the other sinks in the other heads which are let in to the worktop but with a reasonable overhang which discourages water from slurping out of the sink when the boat is heeled.

In their wisdom they gave us a flush joint between the sink and the work top and. although we didn’t think about it at the time; Steve is unable to use the sink in rough weather.  Due to space limitations the bowl of his toilet is smaller than the others and I’m afraid is subject to the same forces as the sink, but then you really don’t want to hear about that.

I had an e-mail comment from Robby who spent a year with us on COMPANY when we did the Millennium Odyssey:

“To follow up on your mention of runny noses from Steve's 
cooking--  If you're not dripping in sweat by Steve's fish curry, 
then it isn't hot enough. Come on, Steve! More Chili peppers!”

13:00

24 hour run was 172 miles with 3 ¼ hours of motoring. We are 247 miles from Port Stanley and will probably arrive in the early hours of Sunday morning.  This morning, the DC generator which normally works automatically, started playing up, it keeps starting itself, running for a few minutes and the quitting only to repeat the process after a pause of  one or two minutes.  Steve has determined it’s not air in the system but further investigation will have to wait until port.  We are currently charging with the AC generator.