It's been a tiring, somewhat problematic but good first few days at sea.

Having all found our sea legs we've had various challenges to address.

Firstly, we discovered that we were taking on water into the bilge - approx 12 buckets every few hours and noticeably more than the odd bit of sea spray etc. The hunt around the boat led us to a small leak by the rudder. Shane and Neil have duly patched it up and we seem to now be OK.

Yesterday afternoon we had the Parasailor flying (effectively a large spinnaker but with a vent to help funnel the wind). The boat levels beautifully with it and at about 60 foot high it is quite a sight when hoisted. Getting the Parasailor in again was more of a challenge (especially after it slipped one of its blocks) and required Shane, Neil & Dan all up on the bow, harnessed on and pulling it in - all slightly hairy.

Last night was the calmest we've had so far, other than a little rain and the odd squall or two we had fair sailing made better by the appearance of a pod of dolphins alongside us for 20 mins or so at 1AM.

This morning we almost had a disaster when our rudder slipped, thankfully as we were on autopilot at the time it self locked itself before it had the chance to disconnect completely and we were able to lift it and lock it tightly in place. Having done that it's been a reasonably quiet day today - we've managed to get the water maker running and have made 5 gallons of water. The swell has increased again and as such we are rolling about more than we did yesterday - this makes cooking an interesting challenge and we have already had both part of a chicken curry and spag bol emptied over the galley floor.

Making good progress over all though and now heading more west than south.

Next update soon.

Canapesia