21 Jan: Wind picks up in the night and we back to a sporty speed of 7+kts. These twin head sail just love the wind above 18kts and by 21kts we are really cruising with less rolling. As it gets light (sun up at 10:15 GMT now) we notice the sea is covered in streaks of yellow seaweed, same type that we hit a raft of a few days ago. There must be thousands of acres of the stuff if you add up all the small patches – luckily no single weed raft is big enough to cause us problems. We guess this westward bound weed must be the stuff that occasionally fills a complete bay in the Caribbean islands, causing problems for the tourist trade.
Yesterday Glen tried to light the BBQ but once the cover was off found it dusty and rusty. And the igniter no longer works. So this morning’s task was to clean and fix it. Probably not the best time as we are rolling around. He finds the battery compartment for the igniter full of salt water and corrosion. Why is it that so many “marine quality” gadgets have such basic flaws in the design – every numpty knows sea water and electrics don’t mix, so why is the battery casing totally open to the elements? Derrr! After a couple of hours the BBQ is restored, shiny and functioning.
In the heat of the day we take shade in the cockpit tent. Glen and Ellie get out the splicing book and all the gear. Other the splicing 3-plait rope, Glen hasn’t yet managed a successful splice on any duel core rope. After a bit of swearing, huffing and puffing, using combination of 2 sets of instruction, the fids do their magic and a spliced eye is made! And just to check it wasn’t a fluke they splice an eye into the other end of the rope too. Cool. It can be done!
Another hot day. Boy this sun is intense. We all notice we are going a nice bronze colour… and rather pink in places too. Well, we can’t turn up in the Caribbean lily white, can we now?
Before sunset we decide to put a sacrificial sheet on the genoa. The current sheets have been chaffing badly through the end of the pole and we don’t want them to snap in the night. Ellie says the pole would be better hook-up rather than hook down. So while we change the sheet we rotate the pole too. We’ll see tomorrow if that improves the situation.
Into the evening a 1/3 moon is now up, though difficult to see as it’s hiding behind the genoa. Just 500 miles to go now. And today marks 2 weeks at sea and 3 weeks since we left Bucharest. Oana says “feels more like a lifetime!”
