Day 10 to 33:53N 60:24W Wind F3-4SW 143nm

The last 24 hours have been idyllic. On the 9pm to Midnight watch last night (Thursday) I got to see a fiery red moon rising through the clouds like an enormous Mars or an inverted sunset and just now at the end of today we had a “Green Flash” the first Jim had ever seen and only about my fourth (the final part of the disk of the setting sun goes green just before it disappears – I have no idea why but it is beautiful) and everything else about the day has been perfect including the fact we are at last under sail going at a pleasant 7knots on an almost flat sea. Also, I am pleased to say that our Stugeron has finally put pay to Louise's and Justin's seasickness but at the cost of them both feeling a bit tired which should wear off soon.

Everyone agrees our watch rota is working very well. Each day in a cycle of four you have a different set of watches and duties, from 9pm to 9am we have four three hour watches and from 9am to 9pm we have six 2 hour watches. For example, today I have galley duty which means that last night I got to sleep from midnight until 9am then was on watch to 11am after which I have no more watches until midnight but have to cook lunch and dinner and clean up the inside of the boat. Louise is my galley help (as I was for Justin yesterday) and assists with the washing up. Tomorrow I am on midnight to 3am then 11am to 1pm, and 5 to 7pm.The 12-3am watch is the quietest and you get neither sunset nor dawn but all the others have their own particular pleasant aspect.

We had been motor-sailing at cruise power until 9am and making just under 6knots with about 7knots of apparent wind. The latest forecast showed we had at least the remainder of the day to go before the wind picked up so I reduced power to 30% and our speed dropped to about 4.3knots. This effectively doubled our remaining motor-sailing range from 700 to 1400 miles and we had about 1560 to go. At this speed the passage would take about 3 days longer so we’d prefer a bit more wind.

Buying the spinners in Bermuda meant we could try out one of our new lures and we rigged our “Pink Willie” which is about 7 inches long and as its name suggests fluorescent pink. It is supposed to vibrate enticingly and dive much deeper than our others which almost float. When I read the advertising tag line on the packet I had to check carefully it was in fact a lure.

Chicken salad wraps with apple coleslaw for lunch and high hopes of fish for dinner.
Justin didn’t like the new lure as it was pulling too hard on the line and changed it for a pink squid on which we rapidly caught our first fish a flashing silver “baby Tunny” with an iridescent dark blue patch near its tail which under Justins direction I filleted ready for dinner.

The weather continued calm and pleasant and the wind picked up slightly bringing us back to 6knots. We had all been reading or writing this morning and for a change this afternoon Louise put on a movie. I carried out my daily rigging check and discovered why our last topping lift (holds up the boom when the sail is down) had chaffed through. Watching the new one at the masthead through binoculars when it was to Port of the sail I could see that it chaffs on the top block of our double purchase halyard (The pulley that gives a two to one ratio to the rope with which we raise the mainsail). There is a very easy fix, we just keep it to Starboard.

At that point a pod of large grey spotted dolphins arrived to play for a short while. Louise sat on one of the bow seats and tried waving and whistling in her secret dolphin language to get their attention (much like Dory in finding Nemo) and although I’m not sure if it worked one did some nice jumps up out of the water in front of her.

Everyone is getting along well, we are all readers and not “in your face” types so there is a gentle conviviality. (And no, I’m not like that anymore, a year off has made me much more laid back). No-one is yet fretting about the journey time or their duties which bodes well for the next few weeks.

At about 6pm the wind rose sufficiently that we could shut off the engines entirely and still make over 6 knots. For dinner I flash fried the Tuna in a spicy flour coating and served it with a green salad followed by a lemon cream pie on an Oreo base with Hagen Daz ice cream. There is something really special about eating a dinner you have caught and we sat around for an hour afterwards in a self satisfied daze listening to Paul Simon, watching the sun dip down and avoiding the washing up.

Finally the wind came up to 14knots, we started making 7 and we saw the green flash. It’s been a wonderful 24hrs and I just have time for a good nap before my midnight watch.