Mischief - Log Day 4: Alf goes to Finnishing School

22 November 2017 Wednesday 0600 Position 25 deg 21' N 020 deg 52' W

The wind early morning was Westerly 9-11 knts right on the nose and we were beating into it at 5-6 knts. We were however heeling a little and hitting a few waves so Wendy had to abandon the forepeak and take up residence in the saloon behind the lee-cloth. The sky was as clear as its been with many shooting stars about. What wind there was soon after disappeared and we were motoring again before too long.

0800 saw our first rain squall, of many I'm sure. Luckily Alf and I (the A team) were tucked up in our bunks whilst Dave and Neal struggled with depowering the mainsail as the wind went from next to nothing to 20+knts in an instant and got drenched as about three inches of rain fell in a minute. Not happy!! :-( Soon afterwards some little Dolphins showed up: Spotted Dolphins apparently, better known as Stenella Frontalis. They had gone before I could lay hands on a camera.

We were sailing again by 0930 under code 0 and making good way in the right direction thankfully. Unfortunately, Neal who does like to smoke a little dropped his antique cigarette rolling box into the deep whilst hanging over the aft quarter having a puff. As he'd had it for years it was a great shame and has been in mourning since. It was a fascinating piece of kit: you put a Rizler in one end and the tobacco in the other, shut the lid, say Abracadabra and a fully rolled cigarette popped out filter & all, brilliant! It will be sorely missed.

Later on Neal asks all on deck who would like a cup of tea. "I take coffee" states Alf and Neal decides to correct his English. "Neal, please may I take some coffee?", says Alf, then "Please may I have some coffee?". Thats it! Alf goes to Finnishing school.... his English is still way better than our Finnish. He is our very own Elisa Dolittle.

Meanwhile the wind had swung around from the North West, the sun was out and Wendy was in her sun hat. All was right with the world as we sailed due west at 7 knts in flat seas. The forecast however is looking decidedly tricky; there is a front approaching between a low pressure region to the west and a high pressure to the south and its causing all sorts of issues in our region with big wind holes prevalent. There is much discussion on board as to which is the right way to go but as soon as you get there the weather has changed again so it is a bit of a lottery. There are however gales in the low pressure so don't want to go too far north. We were doodling along at 4 knts whilst we had dinner: Potato Hash, and were treated to a whale some distance off breaching completely out of the water and splashing back in again. Quite a sight. The wind though was dropping again.

1845 a fish!! I had noticed that we had left the fishing line out so went to reel it in and lo-and-behold there was a fish on the end. A small beautifully coloured Dorado but too small to eat so we let it go.

The engine has gone back on at 2050 as speed has dropped below 2 knts... its going to be a long night I feel.

Hi Ho!