14:29.9N 42:41.14W
1405 GMT Sunday 26th November ‘23
These last couple of days have remained challenging with light winds ranging from 5kts up to gusts of 15kts and varying in direction from NE to SE. 2 nights ago we blew out our ancient spinnaker in only 8/9kts of wind. It did us well carrying us 400NM or so, but as our only true downwind sail, it was a blow to lose it. We’ve been experimenting with different sail combos to try to keep our VMG as high as poss and have settled on the reaching Gennaker which is holding well, well downwind of what it’s designed to do. So we’re now back up to 6+ kts heading directly to Grenada with a 12 to 15kt easterly wind.
Our freezer is full of tuna and Wahoo, so apart from a nice 5kg Wahoo that Nick and Ed are salting and drying (& now hanging from the boom - at least it’s downwind of the cockpit), our fishing activities have halted. A lovely fish & chip supper courtesy of Mark & Ed - fresh tuna and sweet potato chips. Then a chilli from the freezer thanks to Nick last night. We did also open a semi frozen pack of mashed potato which was going to be for a fish pie, but all who ate it regretted it soon after with a dose of the runs. Several other meals that haven’t frozen properly have been ditched as part of the freezer does quite get down to freezing! We also had a movie night onboard last night - The Life of Brian. Bloody marvellous.
I’ve attempted one of Chlöe’s (@BodyMynd) healthy fruit cake recipes, which even with several ingredient substitutions (the supermarkets in the mid Atlantic are poorly stocked), was a great success - 10mins after leaving the oven, the gannets on board had devoured 2/3 of it. Loaf of soda bread too!
We had a hitchhiker join us for a few hours - a very knackered Egret we think. She took a rest on our solar panels and apart from a quick foray over to a yacht that sailed close by, she returned however she didn’t eat the chucks of prime tuna steak we offered! We think she left when the old spinnaker blew out.
STOP PRESS: We’ve reached the midway point at midday 26th Nov. Long way to go still, but a bottle of fizz has just been popped to cheer us on. Love & light from literally the middle of the Atlantic. Now the reggae music has broken out!
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