It has been hot and humid the past few days so, with flat calm seas and with no wind we have killed the engine and let the boat come to a stop. Over the side goes Kyle and Richard for their swim in the 4000 metre (13123 foot) deep swimming pool - the South Atlantic Ocean. Picture above.

Yes, today is Friday 13 but we do not feel it to be an unlucky day. Later today, all indications are that we should start picking up some breeze from the east-southeast which should develop over the next 24 hours. Already, as I type this blog report during my midnight to 3am watch, we have a dark cloud bank developing on the horizon to the northeast of us and our true wind speed has risen from 1 to 2 knots from everywhere to 4 to 5 knots from the east-southeast. Lets hope that the number 13 is a lucky one for us!

There has been some maintenance going on whilst we have had the flat calm seas. Kyle serviced both of our engines yesterday and we repaired the faulty fuel gauges which now show that the tanks hold just over a quarter of diesel. That fuel, together with the 60 odd litres in plastic drums is not sufficient to permit us to motor all the way to Recife. However, it will get us back into the wind belt over the next 48 hours and let us do some sailing for a change. At 2am (local time) this morning we only have 777 nautical miles to Recife - another lucky number. However, we will be doing a few more miles than that as we are slowly tracking further north to pick up the prevailing winds. It is still going to be a slow next few days!

Over the past few days we have had some shipping pass near us - near us means that we cannot actually see the ship but it is visible on radar and on the AIS system. Yesterday we had a tanker sailing from Nigeria en-route to Argentina pass about 10 miles away and it was just visible as a pin prick on the horizon.

Yesterday afternoon I also made up a second fishing line with a different lure in shape, colour and the way it is trailed behind the boat. Lets see if this day also brings us some fresh fish.

What today does bring is us crossing the 22 degree 30 minute west longitude meridian, which means that this evening at 6pm local time we put our clocks back one hour after crossing our fourth and last time zone for the trip. The significance or this (for us on board) is that this evening we have a double happy hour and thus two beers each instead of the normal one. This will go down extremely well with all on board due to the high heat and humidity we are experiencing.

Well, that's about all from aboard "In The Wind" at the moment - lets hope that her name plays out to be true later today and in the next few days. Regards from all aboard, John.