Blog 131213

It is now Friday, 13 Dec and a week since our last update.

If it is not one thing it is another and on our second day out of the Cape Verdes our wind instruments decided to pack a sad. The boys checked everything possible apart from going up the mast, seas and swells have been too confused and large for anyone to volunteer! So it has been back to old school and so far we have managed to work out what we have. Would have been good to have the wind vane for steering wing on wing, but our auto helm has done a pretty good job of it, so all is good.

On our third day out we put up our big red parasail, but were only able to keep her up for a day. Plan was to fly her for the whole trip, no such luck though this year. We have had way too many lows giving us little to no wind and have had to do a lot of motoring or motor/sailing. However, we had had some lovely sunny days and enjoyed dolphins daily. We have also been pretty successful fishing (when we put the line out) and to date have caught three large dolphin fish (maui maui) one baracuda and three ??? fish (not sure what they were, they had very thick skins, but certainly were tasty).

On our seventh day out of the Cape Verdes the wind eventually came up and we have been going great guns ever since. Chewing off the miles, at last it looks like we will get to Barbados sometime late Wednesday, 18 December. We have been averaging 160-170 mile days and the grib files show that we have the trades for at least a week. Mind you the swells and squalls have been fun, feels like we are in a washing machine at low/medium cycle whilst going up and down about 9 feet into the air at the same time. We are lucky though as Ta-b is a very stable platform. Kim and I were dreaming together about washing and having a shower (9 days out and we are certainly feeling it, especially my hair), so what happens today but we get a squall which covers us in �... seawater, not the shower we were hoping for.

Did I mention cooking? Our new camping stove is now equipped with a makeshift front to stop (well it helps) pans from falling off it. Have managed to make bread, muffins and cookies with the pressure cooker and frying pan �- we are so proud of ourselves. Most of our fresh produce is now gone, but we are still well stocked and are eating excellent meals every day. Don't think any of us will have lost weight this trip ?

We have seen a few boats, but not many. The night watches are becoming easier with the moon growing and giving us her lovely bright light. We cracked the bubbly yesterday to celebrate only 1000 miles to go and Ta-b is looking after us well. Next blog will be from Barbados, can't wait to have my first swim back in Caribbean waters. Take care everyone, with love from us all on Ta-b