Freebird Atlantic

We now have light winds and a forecast for them to remain for most of the passage.  We still have quite a lot of fuel, enough to motor for about 48 hours, but that is not enough to see us through.  So we try to minimise the amount of motoring. Yesterday we hoisted the spinnaker alone at first light.  As usual the boys rigged up a myriad of ropes, guys, poles, preventers, infuriators... and we flew.  We averaged 7 knots throughout the day.  We had expected to roll a lot without the steadying force of the main but that was not the case.  We were able to sail a more downwind course and adjust by 10 degrees up or down as the wind picked up a little or reduced.  William kept saying all day that he wished he had thought of that rig before. In fact he said it so many times, I thought the record had got stuck.  Over supper there was a debate over the rig for the night.  The boys all favoured keeping the spinnaker as the forecast looked light and a careful study of the radar revealed no squalls. So we took the chance. But at 2am when Henry was on watch, my fears were realised and a decent set of squalls did arrive. I should mention that squalls almost invariably arrive at night. They tend to produce quite a lot of wind in unpredictable directions and are always accompanied by heavy rain. Dropping the spinnaker requires 2 people, one on the foredeck and one in the cockpit which is a pain at night as we are running a one man night watch system. Henry woke William who returned dripping to my cabin. I refused entry until he had changed out of his soaking pyjamas.

You cannot believe the topic of conversations between Henry and James.  They range all over the place from strimmers to history, to the Telegraph crossword, but a recurring theme is landrovers. They both subscribe to The Classic Landrover Magazine, and James also to Landrovers Owners International.  Honestly!   They won't admit to Train Spotters Weekly, but I have my suspicions.  But they had the last laugh yesterday.  The generator suddenly stopped for no apparent reason.  So Henry changed the impellor, but to no avail.  Out came the manuals and all fuses & trip switches were checked.  Still nothing.  The boys were wracking their brains and supper was looking quite remote when Henry spotted that inside the generator there is an additional fuse for which we have no replacement.  Luckily William keeps some fuse wire, so James made a fuse with some 30A fuse wire.  The generator then started, they both gloated that it was all as a result of their landrover expertise. It was unquestionably the "fix" of the passage, and I had to eat humble pie.  Bother.

Then the fishermen among you might all have a laugh. I was on my own yesterday afternoon on deck (while the boys were all asleep) when the fishing line started screaming out with furious gusto.  I quickly put the brake on and started reeling in but the weight on the line was huge, especially as we were making 7.5 knots under at the time. With the spinnaker up, it was impossible to slow down quickly. Luckily Henry and James came to my rescue (William remained asleep throughout) when my biceps could cope no longer. James tried to reel in the fish which was putting up a big fight. It was another b... Mahi Mahi but clearly much bigger than previously and it was leaping into the air to avert capture.  The reel was becoming very hot as James wrestled with the fish and then the bracket holding the reel to the rail broke, followed by the line itself.  So a poor Mahi Mahi is swimming around the Atlantic trailing 200 metres of line, and you fishermen will be scoffing at our smugness at being able to fish with a reel and no rod.

For about a  week we have been able to see the Southern Cross to our left at night,  during the latter half of the night. Of course you would expect it to be to our left which is south, but it is also fairly close to the horizon, explained by the fact that we are still north of the equator but seeing some of the stars in the southern hemisphere. It is a kite shaped formation of 4 stars from which those that understand draw a perpendicular to point to due south. On the other side, to the north, we have the curious sight of the Plough upside down.

The birds continue to fascinate us.  We are now just 600 miles from the Caribbean, but throughout the passage there have been petrels (we think Leech's).  We did on one occasion watch a tern chase one of the flying fish, as it skimmed across the water. Yesterday a beautiful white bird that we think was a white tailed tropic bird followed us for a while, swooping past the boat, taking huge sweeps across the horizon and then returning for another swoop, or snoop.  It is a large white bird with a long pointed tail and very elegant.