Crossing the Atlantic

We are finally away. It's day three, motoring at 5kn. Not much wind, but we have had 24hrs of only sail so far. We are supposed to be heading south for a week to pick up the trade winds, but we have gone a fair way west while keeping our speed up in the light breeze we have. There is a small tuna riding our bow wave all day. He goes up and down both sides of the boat, but shows no interest in a lure! No idea what he is, they look different on the deck… electric blue flashes along the side and tail, and vibrant brick red splodges on his cheek. He got me excited enough to put a line back in. We caught a nice mahi mahi yesterday, so don't need more fish yet, but we don't want to be hungry do we! Other boats are talking on the radio about the fish they are putting back as their fridges are full of supermarket food. We started out with lots of space in the fridge because all we will eat is fish and rice!

Day 5 (Ellida feel better)

Well we had a day of sailing at 6 or 7 kn, and one of struggling under motor into a light headwind, but what was there not to like about today! We were sailing into the wind, in slightly the wrong direction, only doing about 4kn, but it was calm, sunny, warm. A very large pod of dolphins came to visit. Sparkling clear water.

Discovered a few new problems.. I did know there was a slight leak from the rudder stock, however it was only a few drops..

While we cleaned the bottom I scraped out the barnacles and worms between the rudder post and stock. They were doing no harm, but I thought they might have babies and cover the hull! Well the rudder turns out to have no actual seal, just the bearing was keeping water out and it is a little bit worn rafter 12 years of service, so it's the barnacles that have been keeping the water out and I removed them. Now we are in the Atlantic, pumping the stern bilge every hour through the night.

Also found that sailing towards 7kn the prop shaft gets a terrible shudder. Since we hope to sail at those speeds as much as possible we have a problem. Marcel suggests putting the gearbox in reverse, which we tried and it does hold the prop still, so we will lose some speed and add some stress. Hopefully it turns out to be a successful solution..

Day 7

yet another day of sailing as close to the wind as we can, slowly and mainly going south, which is better than not going at all. Wonderful water, warm.. warm sun. Flying fish on the deck, flying fish all around. Fish all around! There were so many small fish I put my 'Hickey' lure, the blue one from xmas a few years ago, on the light casting rod and had a go. Should have known better out here. Hooked a few small ones and lost them and then, bang… up in the air she went, a nice