Northern Light II - Sunday 26th November

Food and laundry have been on the mind of the crew today.

As I write this, the aroma of fruit cake is gently permeating through the boat. We persuaded Cat that her baking would be much improved by the addition of rum and we look forward to tasting it later now that we’re a dry boat again.

With just five bananas left hanging in the cockpit, all of which were black, the question earlier was what to do for the best. Should we give everyone one now or should we find a way to divide them up for later. There are now ten small plastic bags in the freezer each with four pieces of banana in each for future consumption at breakfast with yogurt and granola. The remaining fruit that hangs in the nets is looking diminished with just a few apples and oranges to see us through.

The fish continue to elude us despite Tom and Skipper’s best efforts. A boat nearby has caught every species of fish you can imagine and are now throwing them back because they have too many to eat. There has been several near misses with lures and lines being eaten through. It seems that G, with her fish allergy, has conjured a halo of protection around NL2.

There was great excitement this morning when we were visited by a pod of dolphins during the boat yoga watch at 7am. However the biggest excitement of the day was provided by the bed linen change in all of the cabins. Who would have thought that it could bring such joy!

As squalls are forecast for later, Patricia has been bought down and put away and the main & jib have been put up. We are being cautious tonight as the wind could hit 20 knots (nothing compared to the journey to Mindelo) but in a squall the wind could increase by up to a 1/3 - better safe than sorry.

As the winds were so light in the first part of the passage it looks as if we will now arrive on the 3rd December - we are counting down the miles - 965 to go.

Until tomorrow

Michael