Thursday 12 January 2012

Atlantic Crossing - DAY 9

Hi from Clare, Wednesday 11th January 2012

All is well on Eye Candy

In the last 24hours we have sailed 129M. The swell is 1-1.5 M, wind speed is 10-15K and boat speed is 4-7K. We have now been under spinnaker for four fantastic days of sailing. Last night we had about 90 percent cloud cover so no stars and moon beams just a cream colored sky and a grey sea.

The highlight of the day is - you have probably already guessed. "We caught another Mahi Mahi" The tally is now 7 Mahi Mahi and 2 tuna fish. We had previously thrown one Mahi Mahi back (undersize) and one of the tuna fish was caught on the first leg. So in the last eight days we have eaten 5 fish and 2 are in the fridge. Guess what we are having for dinner tonight? Andrew has been banned from fishing. Yesterday's catch was the third consecutive large fish weighing 4-5 kilos. A week ago it was impossible to imagine we could get sick of eating Mahi Mahi.

Today's background information is on "entertainment on board".
This is a serious consideration when crossing an ocean as a lot of time is spent together without the stimulation of newspapers, television, internet or telephone. So it is important to have HF radio, a good library, plenty of movies and TV programs, computer games, puzzles and the like. Some of the long term cruisers consider the ocean passages as boring.

The Atlantic crossing for us has been a wonderful experience. It has been a blessing having Bronwyn on board. Her sailing experience and engineer know how has taken the pressure off Andrew (giving him time to fish). For me I have had time to read and escape into another world.

Andrew who is sometimes known as "a man of few words" has been chirping away like a merry magpie. Every morning as I drift off on my morning nap I can hear the conversations from the cockpit. Everything from different greases and their applications, engine power, propellers, fuel consumption, watermakers and gas bottles just to name a few. This morning however I thought "great it's all turned to shit" they were having an in depth conversation about anaerobic sewage treatment on yachts, bacteria and the purchase of bugs to facilitate the process.

I think I will stick to reading!

Cheers from Team Atlantic
A,B,C

At 3:44 PM11/01/2012 (utc) our position was 13°55.37'N 046°34.93'W

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