Flying Fish Day

day 12

It's flying fish day! The water is exploding with them, escaping the fearsome dragon boat's prow. I wonder if it's a special flying fish party, or is it normal to see them fill the sky like this? (It WAS a special flying fish day, but you could watch them all the way across the Atlantic, pre-historic mythical dragonflies)

We have a Northerly swell so 'Nav-boy' can't handle the steering and it's all by hand for the last 2 days. Shoulders ache… Sabine, where are those massage hands when I need them?

Day 17

didn't fuss about xmas. I cooked a loaf of bread and we had bread and butter for lunch. it was pretty good! Today we have 25-30kn, so not too restful. Had our first squall, decks have the salt washed off. Just lost the beautiful heavy black bucket over the side… Marcel had knotted a fantastic painter for it. Both paring knives and most of our teaspoons are gone as well….

Day 19

two pretty awfull days. wind was down to 20-25 yesterday and down to 10 now, but sea is horribly confused, so we have been rolling terribly. I almost expected to wake up with a broken bone from being thrown around in bed! Mainsail tore a seam last night, despite being so carefully tied and reefed and positioned. We have been unable to make much distance these days as the roll means we can't put up much sail without flogging them to pieces. Spent yesterday trying different sail arrangements and combinations, but nothing worked. Now we are back to just the yankee, rolling and hoping to get back over 4kn. We dream of waking to a calm sea and 10kn or so and we will spinnaker to the finish line! Or even back up to 30 would have us moving..

Day 20

Sunrise and we're still rolling, but… a tropic bird flew by, the first I've ever seen, then came back with some friends to circle us for a while, chatting to each other about Ellida. Marcel has his sewing kit out and sail repairs begin. We are taking turns sewing.. it's a slow job. Rolling is not as bad now, but still can only go 4-5kn. It's a gorgeous day, if we didn't have people waiting for us in Martinique we could more enjoy the salubrious weather.

Late in the afternoon finally have a sea that let's us put up the twin headsails again and we are comfortably cruising in the right direction. No hands! Sunset was scrumptious, trade wind cotton wool clouds… peanut sauce, mahi mahi and potatoes.

Day 21

Marcel pointed out after we had raised the spinnaker that it was the new year! That was the lowest key NYE ever, forgot about it completely. What a contrast with last years at Woodford with Aristotelis. We've had 24 hours of nice running but now a painful day with spinnaker averaging 3.5kn, wind shifting constantly. Back to motoring and we can't even catch a fish for dinner. Last few fish have been one hour of lines in, choose the small one and put the big one back. Andy cooked last night, a tin of tomatoes, a tin of baked beans and a tin of Plumrose cocktail sausages in a saucepan. Well it was a change from fish! Actually it was nice, it had the last of the Canary chillis in it. Dolphins came for the New Year, we haven't seen any since leaving Cape Verde area about 12 days ago, and another tropic bird.