The Half-Way point

Here we are on the 10th day out and finally crossed the half way point. We are about a day and a half behind expectations, but not all is gloom and doom. Over the last 48hrs we have made good progress and already clawed back a day or so. Currently I am looking at arriving on the evening of 3 Dec, but this is still very sensitive to our average speeds.

We have celebrated half way by having showers. The crew had the choice of hot water and privacy with the camping bag, or the deck shower at the back of the boat. The fragrance levels of the boat have improved dramatically. Some of the crew have even washed their clothes.

Whilst each day is fundamentally the same, same view, same sun, same people we do find other ways to change it up. Food plays a big part of this, as do sail changes, boat jobs and interactions with other boats. As well as the SSB radio net, when we get close enough to another boat we often have a short chat on the VHF. A few days ago Norah one of the family boats was a few hours away and Lucy got to have a chat on the VHF with Johanna. Another task that fills in some time is keeping Lucy’s hair under control. We’ve now washed it twice and it is looking good.

Last Thursday as darkness fell we came across a yacht that appeared to be drifting and was certainly acting erratically. The yacht did not respond to our calls on VHF and did not appear to be part of the ARC+ fleet (not showing on the trackers). The boat had no AIS and at the time no lights. Concerned that they may have been in need to assistance we dropped our sails and motored back to intercept them. The vessel finally responded after being illuminated by torchlight. The vessel reported that they were OK but had no autopilot. He also asked if he was showing on AIS to which we responded negative. Having satisfied ourselves that the vessel was not requesting assistance we resumed our course under sail.

Thursday night saw the wind threatening to rise to challenging levels, so at midnight we conducted a sail change, dropping the Bora and reverting to white sails. We kept that going until yesterday morning when with decreasing winds we switched back to the Bora which is still flying as I speak. Sailing at night is currently extremely pleasurable, with the temperature a pleasant 25degrees or so and a lovely moon lighting the way.

Another activity that was proving frustrating, but has provided timely intervention is fishing. It’s Friday and it’s Amberjack time. Friday afternoon saw us finally start to catch fish and we caught 4 Amberjack that afternoon, 3 of which we kept. They made for a delicious supper last night and we still have some in the freezer. Yesterday we caught a couple of Tuna, and though 1 escaped the other was a decent size. I made Tuna Tartare for lunch which we served in wraps. The flavour was absolutely amazing.

We have also had some onboard stowaways. We previously had been visited by a bird that looked like an egret. Well the egret returned and spent a couple of days on board. Despite calling it an egret we weren’t convinced, but following research and ‘phone a friend’ (thanks Jane) it is confirmed as a Great Egret, possibly a juvenile. But the reals news was that 1 became 2. We thought that we were going to start a breeding programme. It was very sweet. Our passenger spotted the other bird looking lost and struggling, left the boat, quick meet/greet and possibly a mating ritual before leading and showing the new friend how to land on a moving boat. They stayed with us for a few hours and then left together to start a new life somewhere better than a yacht in the ocean. All that was left for me was to clean up the guano and throw away the food they rejected (sardine paste I might add). S0me guests are just so ungrateful.

I have also got the sextant out and blown away the cobwebs. Today I am only plotting our position based on my sun sights (but am checking that the answers look sensible). Having now done 3 sights including a noon sight I am feeling very pleased with myself. My noon sight gave a Latitude of 13 Degrees 38.8N and the GPS gave 13 Degrees 39.43N. A difference of about 0.6nm. When I have practised my sun sights a bit more then I will move on to do some Star sights.

Progress has now picked up, and our current estimate for arrival is evening on 3 Dec. That does however require us to keep a SOG up of around 6kts, very feasible given we have around 1kn of current pushing us along and still have full tanks of diesel.