We (Shaun and I) have been chatting to a number of our fellow hams in Cape Town over the past few days and have been updated on the news on the home front. Thanks to all that have been in contact with us. I must admit that the news of the high winds and flooding in some areas of the Cape were expected after receiving the weather updates on a daily basis to see what we were expecting - remember that we are now well north and only a couple of days out of St Helena.

On the sailing front (this is supposed to be a sailing blog), there is not much to report. The wind we had has died down to 18 knots from the east-southeast and the seas have flattened a bit to permit us to sail with the spinnaker again. At our current daily runs we should make James Bay, St Helena, on Sunday afternoon. We have all made the decision that, due to arriving on a Sunday and not being able to undertake the clearing-in formalities, we are all going to get stuck in and try and service both engines and undertake the few repairs that need to be done on Sunday afternoon and that will leave the Monday and Tuesday morning to explore the island.

Getting back to radio, I have once again been helping Gilbert of the marine radio station on the island (St Helena Radio) with some message passing exercises to give his staff some practice. Although I have met Gilbert, I have never visited the marine radio station and thus do not know the people I talk to each day. This time I will make an effort to pay a visit and chat to the folk that run the station.

On the fishing front, we have had no lines out since catching the two large yellow-fin Tuna. However, we will put them out again on Sunday morning. Whatever we catch will be used as gifts when we reach the island.

As mentioned above, we are under spinnaker and making a good 8 knots. Due to a few squalls coming through we drop the spinnaker at night and sail on the genoa or a combination of the genoa and "iron sail" (55hp Yanmar). Our batteries are not keeping a charge as they should and doing a bit of motor-sailing at night is helping charge them properly.

The above photo was shot by Shaun earlier - note the overcast sky, which we are hoping will clear as we get closer to St Helena.

With 350 nautical miles to St Helena, that's all for now folks - see you in a day or two. Regards from all aboard.