Wednesday 23 November  2022

23^o 45.0N  19^o 00.1 W

Today's Blog by David  (Time zone: UTC )

Where to start?

Progress

Our progress is best described as “steady”.   That day’s delay in our departure, from Sunday to Monday, has rather changed our prospects.  On the plus side, the boat is steady – almost regal – most of the time,  making for a comfortable journey – EXCEPT when you want to do anything that is much easier on a flat surface – like cook!  On the other hand, It’s certainly not going to be a quick passage. We presently estimate a December 10^th  arrival – somewhere – assuming the weather forecast materialises – quite an assumption when you are guessing the weather 17 days ahead!

Crew morale

A flat boat does wonders for morale. We’d like to get there earlier but we are also happy bumbling along in comfort. Personally, I think it is warmer again today than it was yesterday, but not everyone agrees. For example, Jenna has doubled down, standing her night watch in a fleece and track suit bottoms as the outer layer of a multilayer rig:

I don’t think I need a jacket tonight – shorts and T-shirt for me.

Morale is also improved if the cuisine hits the spot. Yesterday, Jenna produced a lovely chicken and chorizo risotto – tonight I made a good pork fillet and cashew nut stir fry. That was quite a challenge because Terry and or Peter were trying to tip the boat on its side while I cooked, but I did get most of it into their “dog bowls”,  of which perhaps more another day?

Everyone is now in bed, with sated appetite, except little ol’ me who is manning the action stations. It’s thankfully a quiet night.

Other traffic

There is, understandably, quite a bit of shipping plying its trade north and south along the coast of Africa which we need to take heed of but most have been quite gentlemanly, giving us plenty of sea room.  

There is also rather more yacht traffic than I had expected.  In our experience, as you lose sight of land the various Caribbean bound traffic disperses, never to be seen again until you are approaching your destination. However, so far we have seen or heard quite a few yachts. 

Over the last two days we have received quite lot of  “safety traffic” about hazards and things to avoid, including an unfortunately named yacht – “Jonah” -  which had been disabled and had been drifting since last Friday -but which, we were assured,  did not require assistance.  Last night, we passed by it in the dark at about three miles distant – it having drifted about 40 miles SW over the previous four days.  A few hours later, Terry heard radio some related  traffic -  what he thinks was a helicopter preparing to lift the crew off.

Then earlier today, we had been admiring a vessel with a beautiful, classic high clewed yankee headsail  sailing across our wake  behind us.  About five hours later, we received a VHF radio message addressed to “Zerendeepity” in Peter Sellars’ best Clousseau accent,  from this boat:

It is a 21 metre LOA catamaran, registered in France.  The radio was operated by a bored Frenchman who obviously just wanted  to chat  and when I answered the call, you know how happy I was to oblige.  I did elicit that he was bound for Guadeloupe before we ran out of things to chat about and he then went on is way, westward into the sunset.

I wonder what tomorrow might bring?