Cara of the South - Day 4 (more)...

22:56.32N 21:00.88W

OK, so here's the thing. It's David here, not Gary. I have quietly gone into his blog while he was looking the other way, and now I can write what I want before he catches me. But I have to be quick!

First thing I want to say is we have now done four full days at sea, and we have not fallen out, which is great. My jokes are clearly helping. Gary is a skipper, who amazes me more every day, just to be serious for a moment. Not
only competent, happy to share knowledge, meticulous in what he does, but also, and this is very rare in a skipper, patient and calm at all times. We did a controlled gybe in the dark a couple of nights ago, with a strong wind and an angry sea state. It needed quiet control, and that is how he approached it. It's really quite inspiring. Because I have never seen any benefit in shouting at sea. It only makes things worse.

We are now leaving western Sahara, which is just as well, because whilst at the chart table during the night, I noticed a swarm of insects. When we changed watch, I showed a few dead critters to Gary, and his initial
reaction was that these may be in the fruit, so we may need to discard all our fresh fruit. But it turns out they were being blown onto the boat from the Sahara, and all boats have the same problem. Today I have been flicking
them off the boat for fun. Though Gary pointed out I am actually just flicking them around the boat.

Anyway, I might try to write more when he's not looking but I must run. Gary is coming back..