Still no fish...
08 June 2010 | The North Atlantic
Graham
It is quite unbelievable that having now sailed over 2000 Nm since Sint Maarten, we have still caught no fish! With two fishing lines trailing from the stern, with different lures, we have concluded that there must be nothing small enough out there to be interested in the lures we have. Anything too big, and we don't want to catch it as we cannot eat it all, and it becomes a waste of a good creature. Today has been quite mellow, with quite a calm sea, a light breeze, Force 3 southerly, and we are making steady progress towards Faial, the Azores, and our arrival town of Horta. We have 790 Nm to go now, having completed 1331 Nm since Bermuda. Days are spent relaxing, listening to music on deck, learning new skills such as rope work (ornamental knots) and lots of astro navigation using the sextant, stars and planets. This is good fun and quite easy once you get the hang of it. It keeps the brain active as well using mental arithmetic. Last night was fantastically clear; as well as thousands of stars, we could see Venus, Mars and Saturn at night, and Jupiter in the morning today. Orion is no longer visible to us, but the Big Dipper is there every night pointing to the Pole Star in the north, making this ocean navigation thing very simple. Who needs a GPS! The expresso coffee perculator is now in daily use when not too rough, all of the crew mastering its use without wearing the contents of the pot during the odd bounce. No whales today, but several pods of dolphins, though less inquisitive as usual. Thanks to all of you who are following the QUASAR IV blog. We can catch up on your comments and add some photos once we arrive in Horta and can access the internet again, but until then, it's text only updates I'm afraid. We are expecting a bit of a blow in a couple of days time, so we are hoping that the Heath Robinson rigging repair holds out for us; it's doing well so far and appears to be stronger than the original stainless steel item! The Azores Mid Atlantic Yacht Services has been advised of our snag and is on the case to look at fabricating a replacement which I can fit once we arrive. Until then, fingers crossed!