I give in and sleep in the stern cabin – it’s just too bouncy and noisy in the bow. We continue our pathetically slow crawl through the night. We don’t come across any fishing vessels, lit or unlit, which was my huge worry with the nets they have out, but we see a lot of commercial traffic, tankers, containers and the easy to spot cruise liners (lit up like Christmas trees as usual) on the way.
Before I go down for my next sleep we relocate the stuff from the unfrozen freezer to the back of the fridge which is now turned down so low all the cans are sticking to the ice at the back. After prising them all away I manage to get all the meat, fish and chicken breasts at the back which should keep them frozen. The dodgy chicken thighs which I am convinced are off, take a leap over the side with no argument from Mike this time. I hope fish have strong stomachs! I have some home made soups in the freezer which are totally defrosted which we can eat up easily over the next couple of days – they don’t contain meat or anything so should be fine.
After my morning nap Mike tells me that the biggest mahi mahi he has seen was hooked on our line for quite some time before it managed to get off at the last minute as he brought it to the steps. It did the usual thing – throwing itself against the side of the boat until it had knocked the hook out. How do they know how to do that?
After lunch, and while Mike is sleeping, the wind gets up a bit and finally comes from a better direction. I alter course slightly and manage to trim the genoa – all by myself – and by the time Mike gets up we are whizzing along (whizzing?) at between 5 and 6 knots. I had tried turning the engine off but when I did that we immediately slipped back to 4 knots so I put it on again but a couple of hours later the wind picks up even more and we cut the engine completely and sail – properly – with full main and genoa. We aren’t doing the speeds we would like and still have current against us but it’s so much better.
As usual, there is nothing to photograph but the sunset. Having been asleep when Mike pulled in the mahi mahi I have no proof of the one that got away!
By the time my bed time comes the wind is around 20 – 25 knots and we reef both the main and genoa in for the night just in case it picks up further. Of course, it does the opposite! At least with no engine on we can run generator and therefore the air conditioning. Bliss!
Our position is: 11 deg 49 min S, 37 deg 00 min W
Distance so far: 22191 nautical miles
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