Pancake Tuesday

Tuesday morning, and after the record distance covered the day before, the wind had dropped and the sea was completely flat - slow sailing, but perfect for cooking. We were out of eggs, bacon and most other breakfast ingredients by that point, so Anders took to the galley to make pancakes. We had lemon and sugar, two types of jam and to Anders' delight a full jar of Nutella. Pete and Nigel had countless pancakes, and Anders even had a couple to go with his chocolate feast.

After breakfast, we were treated to another feeding frenzy - a huge pod of dolphins passed ahead, seemingly chasing their breakfast too. They were leaping clear out of the water and swimming at an incredible speed, and unusually they seemed way too preoccupied to come for a closer visit to Astrid.

We passed the '200-miles-to-go' point, and as Pete was at the tiller, it was his privilege to blow the horn for the first time on the trip, which he did with great gusto. At the same time, another small pod of dolphins arrived, and this time they spent a good while swimming to and fro immediately in front of our bow, just below the surface, giving a great filming opportunity. The movie is in the 'cutting room' and will be released shortly.

As the day wore on, the wind became lighter and lighter, and our progress slowed to almost a standstill. After such good progress the day before, this was really frustrating, but Anders was resolute that we would persevere - this was a sailing trip. However, after several hours of flapping sails and no progress, he finally agreed to summon The Devil to unleash His 28 Demons (our trusty Volvo 28Hp motor) to power us toward our destination, much to the relief of the crew. As it was, we were sailing again within a couple of hours, and we are heading towards Portugal at pace.

Earlier in the day, Anders also returned to the galley for a second time to make Popcorn, and although there was no cold beer or chilled white wine to go with it, it went down well. We also practiced our song, "When The Boat Comes In", to be performed on arrival at the Visitors Quay in Lagos - again this will be available to download soon! We also started discussing how we might end the blog in an appropriate manner - more on this later!