Ahoy. First apologies for their radio silence (this is shore based Admiral writing) but there have been a few matters to attend to! In no particular order, email server total failure (the mailasail Redbox burned itself out) so no emails, weather reports, cheery updates; then the generator conked out, again, and this time it's not fixable at sea, so no water making, no showers, and a 24 hour water watch (they have a very large tank so no imminent danger of dehydration, plus there are more than a few bottles of wine and beer on board despite the Skip's dry ship declaration which may need to be raided..); 48 hours becalmed during which I think the record was 0.8 knots traveled in 8 hours or some such, and that was only courtesy of some benign current running, which resulted in a solid and definite slide towards the rear of the fleet... But a boat pow wow later, and a couple of emails and satellite calls to shore based support, thanks guys, they finally decided to bite the bullet and motor. Thank the lord, and once again they are on the move. And we have got them back on limited email contact so they can get the weather and more importantly, sport updates, relief all round! And so I am now pleased to publish the latest from the horse's(Skip's) mouth:
"You know that you've been at sea for a while, when a polystyrene box floating past gathers the crew on deck and provokes 10 minute discussions about its possible origin. We're really saving our words for the important things in life. But there has actually been some genuine excitement, we passed a pod of Pilot Whales and have begun to gather the customary collection of flying fish on deck. Oh and we think the other half of the box floated past shortly after, the scenes! Aside from the greasy hair and questionable personal hygiene, the water situation is good - salt water shaves are becoming attractive, and antiseptic gel counts as a shower. Too much? Our problems put squarely in to perspective passing another yacht, sailing solely on bottled water - so we've all calmed down a bit! The spinnaker has been hoisted, flown, wrapped and doused successfully - so no change there then. I'm not going to talk about the fact we've found a bit of wind - the sea is a fickle beast, so instead I'll talk about the dining situation, smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, Thai Curry and Fish Pie have all featured - so fear not, our stomachs are satisfied. And we've finally passed 1000 miles from Las Palmas, just a shame there's another 1600 left. Still, the comeback is on, watch this space.
Skip xx