Blog 9 Freedom Monday 27th November 2023

G’day Simon here:

We were woken at dawn on Monday morning to the skipper rousing crew for a potential spinnaker drop as a possible squall had been sighted. This followed a night, and indeed most the of the previous day, of rollicking downwind sailing in 10-20 knots of breeze with wave assisted speeds of 9 knots not uncommon and an 11 sighted. After assessing the conditions for a while our faithful but occasionally temperamental Red engine (spinnaker) remained aloft and I went back to bed. On waking Chris had made a plunger of coffee, a more genteel way to start the day for a second time. We were also accompanied by a pod of what I think are dolphins, though opinions vary, during the morning. Perhaps these graceful creatures were attracted by Simon Merrys playlist that has had us bopping around the boat as another day in paradise unfolds.

Sunday marked a week at sea and was celebrated in a number of ways. Firstly Nigel acquainted himself with the cooker and produced a bloody good breakfast of scrambled eggs served with beautifully presented and perfectly ripened canary avocado. As an aside I note that Nige referred to assistant chefs in the plural in yesterdays blog. This is a stretch as yesterday was the first time he had been sighted in the galley. In reality I have been Ian’s assistant in the kitchen, more on his Herculean (or should it be neptunian) culinary efforts below. Various other treats were enjoyed during the day including pistachio nuts, mini mars bars, fresh fish and roasted cashews. The latter served with a fantastic chicken curry and perfectly fluffy rice. The good news is we still have more chicken so may get a repeat. An excellent day was fittingly concluded with a halo around the full moon, something none of us had experienced previously.

At this stage I feel the need to set the fishing record straight. Yesterday was the third consecutive day we have had fish on the line. On reflection we think we were upsold on the fishing gear, either that or the proprietor took the opportunity to unload some slow moving stock on some clearly novice Anglo anglers. The line has a breaking strength in excess of 100 Kg, the hooks on 2 of the 3 lures would just about fit in a human mouth. The type of fish it attracts was demonstrated on the first day this mega kit was deployed. When we brought the line in at the end of the day we discovered the hooks had been bitten clean off the lure. The skipper has complained about the drag imposed by this sort of gear, claiming at least 0.1 knot. Bear this in mind at results time. Earlier in the day I had seen a fast moving fin, protruding at least 6 inches above the waterline, travelling at speed past the boat towards the lure. Though I didn’t see direct evidence It is not difficult to conclude this fish now has a sore mouth. On the second day we deployed a lure of more modest dimensions which duly attracted a proportionately sized fish. Unfortunately this fish disappeared in a swirl of thrashing fins and turbulence within 10 meters of the boat as the catch was being landed (I have a witness, the ever reliable Stu). Yesterday we persisted with the ‘small’ kit and were rewarded when a small Mahi mahi was landed just in time for dinner. Nige masterfully separated some flesh from guts and bone, not easy on a moving boat while avoiding gore on the deck and clothing. This was immediately transferred into a pan and 4 modest steaks were served with lemon as a starter. Stu made the division easier as he is not a fish fan. The fish narrative would not be complete without referencing the fact that I think all on board are slightly uneasy with killing fish. For this reason I have not deployed the gear today pending a discussion that I hope this blog will initiate. Suffice to say that though I would be interested to see what else we can attract I won’t be dissatisfied if our investment in kit results in the current unit cost of approx. €100/fish.

Most of time we have been heading in approx. south-westerly direction towards the coast of northern Brazil for meteorological reasons explained in previous blogs. We are currently 16 degrees north of the equator, only 3 deg above St Lucia so will be ‘turning right’ as the trades hopefully stabilise to allow us to actually sail towards the island.
Stop press Chris has just announced we sailed 160 miles In the 24h to 1300 today, a new record for this passage.

With love to those at home enduring tough times and best wishes to all from the South Atlantic

PS believe it or not there hasn’t been much time for reading but I did manage a chapter of Simon Winchesters book Atlantic (Chris has read the book, I gather generously provided by his friend Billy Clare on the occasion of his last transatlantic 10 hrs ago) yesterday. From this I learned the little known fact that the Norseman landed in Canada in year approx. 1000 AD, almost 500 years before the unashamed self publicist Columbus (who actually landed in the West Indies, Central and South America on his various voyages). Throughout this time he thought he had discovered what we now call Indonesia. As you may have gathered I think our American friends over celebrate the Columbus thing.