As I type this, we are still off the coast of Africa and making south. We should pass the Canary Islands tomorrow, around midday, and will be continuing to head towards the Cape Verde Islands. For the first 48 hours out of Rabat we were motoring into a stiff breeze with both engines but then, as predicted, the wind dropped and swung yesterday afternoon with just a light breeze out of the north. This breeze was not enough to sail with (only 3 to 5 knots), but enough to cut one engine and motor-sail.

When crossing the Bay of Biscay we had very large breaking waves hitting the boat on the starboard side. Unfortunately, the diesel tank on the starboard side has its breather just above deck level and with the constant seas breaking over it, we sucked a bit of water into the diesel tank. Now, when using the starboard engine, we have to stop it every few hours and empty the water and other muck out of the separation filter. Somewhere along the line we are going to have to have the fuel polished in both tanks to strain out any water and also a few years of other muck that has accumulated in them.

At the moment we have no wind but still a long 1.5 to 2 metre swell coming from the west. The prediction I downloaded via the Winlink email system indicates that the breeze should start filling in from the north this evening and we should have it slowly picking up through the night as we get further south - our intended course is via the gap between the most easterly Canary island and the African coast. If this does occur, we may even be able to hoist our gennaker tomorrow and, for the first time since leaving London, be able to sail Ultima Life with the silence of having no engines throbbing in the background!

Yesterday I saw our first flying fish, which means warmer water and other predator fish. So, it was out with a fishing line. We nearly caught a rather large seagull and had to roll up the line until it disappeared. Once gone I put the line out again and soon had a few strikes but no fish. Whilst putting the line back on its peg I felt a slight banging on the lure and looked out to where the lure was and saw the fin of a fish. I played with the line a bit and soon had the fish on the hook. When retrieving the fish I found it to be a baby blue-fin marlin, only just over a metre long. With pliers and great care I removed the hook from its bill and put it back into the sea - it is such a beautiful fish that there is no ways that we were going to eat the poor little blighter. Let's hope he (or she) lives long enough to grow into a large specimen and does not have the temptation to try and swallow a plastic squid again. We ended up having herbed pork cutlets and salads for dinner. It is still early in the morning and we have not taken anything out of the freezer for tonight's dinner, hoping that we will be able to catch something nice and tasty from the sea - other than a seagull!

Since leaving the UK we have had quite a few groups of dolphin visiting us. However, yesterday evening we had quite a large number come and say hello. They were full of life and a number of them were jumping out the water and spinning around before splashing back into the sea. It was quite a magnificent display and had the crew all shouting and clapping their appreciation. I am going to try and include one of the photographs of this at the top of this blog report.

As we continue to make more progress to the south, I wish you folk well from all aboard Ultima Life - greeting from Dylan, Jason, Mark and myself, John.

Ps. If you look on the right of this page you will see a link to "Shitrak'. Click on it and you will be taken to a page where we post our latest position. John.