Challenger 2 - Day Eleven

Heather’s Birthday Blog

Latitude 21 degrees 13.48 N and 42 degrees 56.59W

Greetings to you all from the birthday girl and the words on my card from Fiona –

‘Feel the warmth of the sun, the splashes of the sea and remember life is a gift to be savoured’.

A special thank you to Mike, Fiona and hubby Peter for your birthday emails. Thanks for my cards and prezzies which I have just opened and as I write those up on deck are playing with the bubble wand.

Another pressie for the day, we are putting the spinnaker up – whoop, whoop!

Mike – the stars are out of this world – so magnificent and I continue to see shooting stars every night. The waves although initially a tiny bit scary are now my friends as they move us closer to the Caribbean. I’m also very proud to be the final Perham in our family to have sailed across the Atlantic and ailing my dream.

Fiona – can’t wait to Face Time you when I reach St Lucia and to hear all about your adventures in New Zealand.

As planned I am having the birthday to remember with my fellow sailors out here on the glorious and awesome Atlantic Ocean. What started as a group of 17 strangers has become ‘family’. Thanks guys for the card and huge birthday 60th badge I am supposed to wear all day. Will have to work out how to attach it to my lifejacket of course. Our home, our island is Challenger 2 and most of the time it seems like we are the only inhabitants of this ocean. We rarely see another boat although we were followed for the best part of the day yesterday by a 41ft catamaran. Maybe they think we know where the wind is?

Yesterday evening I was on watch from 18.00 – 21.00 hrs and then from 03.00 – 06.00 so the celebrations started early this morning. It also coincided with a sail change as the Skipper, Monkey had requested the sails set as ‘goose wing’ – don’t ask me to explain, best to google it. However, the main aim is to catch the wind when there is very little around and so keep us making good speed as we head closer and closer to St Lucia.

A wonderful mixture of fresh food and veg continues to be a looked forward to highlight and all mother watches are rising to the challenge of cooking something very special. Last night’s mother watch and indeed thanks to Sam cooked up a simply fantastic Indian banquet. We are also being spoilt with regular batches of fresh bread and cake, yummy yummy.

So I am truly having the adventure of a lifetime.

Heather Perham