It's good to be at sea again.
Our visit to St Helana was all too short. Most of us would be happy to have spent several more days there; the Skipper looked as if he wanted to take root there. But there was something special about sailing away from this little island in the afternoon sun. Looking back as it faded into the twilight, we wondered whether we would ever go back there (and I think that most of us have promised ourselves that it's a must), and if we did, whether there would be the same sense of magic about it. But we are here to sail across the oceans and around the world, we've got to walk the walk as well as talk the talk.
After an hour, motoring in what little breeze there was was curtailed by having to switch the engine off for the 1800 hours radio schedule. Amidst the static of the high-frequencies during bad propagation, everyone else was complaining about poor communications and lack of wind. Sunspots, said the Skipper; nobody believed him. But while we were listening to his idle chit-chat with friends on other boats, the breeze was freshening. So the engine remained silent, and soon we were rattling along at over six knots on the port tack. Spinnaker deployed, and we are still at it. Bar Into the Blue, who have been visiting Namibia and arrived just as we were leaving, and Gray Lady, not yet left Cape Town, we were the last yacht to leave St Helena, and our chances of catching up any of the rest of the fleet before Salvador are so slim as to be non-existant. But it's been great sailing so far; there is only another one thousand eight hundred and twenty five miles to go!
Meanwhile, all is well with us, and very best wishes to you all.
James, Graham, Jenni, Shayne and Mandy
Yacht Cleone
15o53'S 007o37'E