Freebird Atlantic

Yesterday was another day of frustratingly light winds, which meant that we abandoned the spinnaker at lunchtime and have been motoring since.  The sea state was pretty calm yesterday afternoon, so we stopped the engine and took a dip in the big blue sea. The boys all dived or jumped in, complaining that they couldn't reach the bottom, not surprising since the depth was 5,000 metres. The temperature was 78.5F and even I took a plunge although rather more apprehensively for fear of the Big White lurking.  It really was very refreshing as we were all sweltering (sorry to those at home freezing on a January day). Much to our surprise, we found that there has been a build up of barnacles on our transom just above the waterline and antifoul. They should come off easily with a brush.

Even though the sea may be "calm", waves and swell are incessant. In some ways the motion when motoring is even more challenging in the galley than when under sail. The motion is less predictable and the rogue waves always seem to turn up when I am trying to cook another gastronomic feast. We have often eaten out of bowls, rather than plates, to prevent the slop landing in our laps, and I regularly strap myself into the galley to prevent myself falling on the cooker or out of the galley altogether.  This trip has done wonders for the tummy muscles.

William's "prep" entails endless calculations to assess how much fuel we have for motoring and to ensure there is enough to charge the batteries. We use a lot of power, especially the fridges and freezer which have to work harder as the temperature has risen and the auto-pilot which has worked manfully throughout - thank goodness, as it really is like an extra crew member. All the power we take out has to be put back so keeping the batteries charged requires a lot of management. As a result of doing relatively little motoring early on, we still have a reasonable reserve of fuel which is allowing us to motor in these later stages when the wind is light. So those "nasty sails" have been put away for now, although the forecast shows more wind so probably not for long! The spinnaker in particular at night guarantees a sleepless night as it flops, then bites, then snatches (that sounds like our dogs but at least it is more colourful, being a vivid bright blue with large yellow star).  As you know William always has ants in his pants, so has not sat still for the entire passage. He is either glued to the chart table plotting fixes, poring over forecasts, or he has head down in the engine (he calls that his engine prayers) or he is playing with the water maker, generator, or anything else he can think of. He even cleaned down the decks at 3am this morning when we had a refreshing shower in the night, and was cleaning the hatches this morning, after checking all the rigging to ensure nothing had worked loose. Don't be fooled. Housework is entirely confined to his boat, and does not extend to terra firma.

Henry and James were put to work to rig up a system for securing the fishing reel to the rail, after the calamity of the previous day. The boy scout in both of them meant that they spent hours fixing a jury rig which meant "borrowing" cleats from other parts of the boat and making the whole system more efficient and secure than before. Whilst the DIY was impressive, the fishing was less so - the only bite promptly got away. Shambles, and it meant we had to resort to one of my pre-cooked vacuum packed numbers of chicken in tarragon for supper.

During breakfast yesterday we spotted a frigate bird circling us in the sky.  The frigate bird is a magnificent black bird with long narrow pointed wings of up to 2.5m and a deeply forked tail.   Their breeding grounds are in Barbuda which is where it had probably come from.  As we were still 600 miles from Barbuda it seemed incredible that it was so far from home, especially as they cannot land on water, because they are too ungainly to take off again.

As I write this, we are now just 400 miles from Antigua, we have just had another beautiful sunset and we have just found, at first light, another 2 flying fish on our decks.  I must finish this to help William hoist the spinnaker.  There is just enough wind to fill her.