Saturday Nov 12th On passage to Barbados 13 46.80N 41 47.50W

Yesterday was a day of mixed emotions; depression as the wind died, optimism as the kite filled, exhilaration as the wind filled in and we tanked along at 9+kts then abject horror at the 23.00 watch change when it was clear that the wind had built to 22kts and the sea state had become less smooth/rougher!  How were we going to get our frog:

back in its locker?

All hands on deck, which we lit up like a Christmas Tree, and to our surprise the whole lot was doused, stowed and the trade wind rig hoisted all within 34-40 minutes – and no Umbrellas* awarded! We were impressed.  Maybe the crew were in a rush to get back to bed! ?

Earlier,  David had resurrected the bread making campaign, this time using our new heart shaped baking tin (it was the only sensible (sic) sized non-stick pan we could find in Mindelo). The resulting “Buttock Bread”  was noteworthy for a number of reasons. Baked in the convection oven of the microwave, it looked like bread and smelt like bread:

It tasted like bread too – at least those bits you could get in your mouth tasted like bread! Its consistency was similar to a builder’s breeze block,  the convection oven having baked hard the top half of the loaf. So, room for improvement today!

There were also trials and tribulations while Bob was preparing another gourmet stir fried pork number, when the gas bottle ran dry. That necessitated a 15 minute halt in the preparations while this rather fetching, Spanish gas bottle:

Cocooned in a plastic anti - shock sheath was replace with a more conventional Calor Gas bottle.   Happily, dinner survived this interruption.

So, we are now chugging along nicely at 7-7.5 knots under the trade wind rig. We will be over half way in about three hours’ time:  1016.5 miles made good and 1016.5 to go. At that point we will be over 1000 miles from the nearest land fall - in any direction  – save for downwards (the sea bed which is only about three miles beneath us)!  Hopefully somebody will know which way to go?

Doubtless more later……

Notes

·         Umbrellas

The received wisdom among yachtsmen is that the two most useless things on a yacht are a Naval Officer and an Umbrella. I have sailed with a couple  retired Naval Officers and couldn’t possibly support the wisdom of the former ;-)  , but can attest that there is not much call for umbrellas aboard – indeed they are close to useless.  So, if follows that the award of an “Umbrella” marks the demonstration of complete ineptitude as a seaman.  They are not common aboard Serendipity – but David was awarded one yesterday morning for doing something that he should have known was likely  to end in tears……