About half way into my watch the wind drops to almost nothing and I have to put the engine on to keep our speed up to the minimum required to get us to Salvador by 7 February when Johanne and Steve arrive.
Then, almost at the end of my watch, I hear a clunk and looking out of the window I can see that one of the mainsail battens has almost managed to work its way out and has hit the deck. It is still just about in the sail at the other end but I realise that it will only be minutes before it comes out completely and then it will just slide overboard. I rush down to wake Mike and he goes out to retrieve it just in time. It’s the biggest one out of the mainsail and at over 20 feet, the only place to put it is inside the boat running from the port bow head to the stern cabin. We’ll put it back in when we get some flat calm sea or in Salvador, whichever comes first.
It’s sunny all day today and for the first time in ages it feels hot inside the boat. Neither of us needs the blanket now and we both put the fan on for our daytime sleeps.
We continue to make inroads into the chicken curry and beef burgers. I just hope the other stuff doesn’t defrost before we can eat everything that already has.
We motor all day and have over a knot of current with us around teatime which helps. Finally, at around 10 pm we get enough wind for Mike to turn the engine off. Bliss.
Our position is: 15 deg 27 min S, 13 deg 30 min W
Distance so far: 20679 nautical miles
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