January 8th: We cooked bacon and eggs for breakfast as it will most likely be easy breakfasts on the passage as it will be rough. Heidi and I went for a walk to buy fresh bread and discovered they had markets on today. It was mainly handbags, jewellery, clothes etc. and not really fresh food. I managed to find Heidi an early birthday present and Jennifer a coral bracelet with silver charms in her favourite colour.
We got back to the boat and it was time to depart Port Mogan and head to the fuel wharf. Laust very kindly offered to film the two Nordhavns departing with his drone. We departed first and tied up at the fuel wharf. I jumped off to get ready to pay and check the diesel bowser and as I was climbing off the side my thong dropped in the water. Luckily there was a fuel attendant right there and he fished it out for me with a net. We only took 249 litres, $185 euro our cheapest fuel bill ever! Wish they were all that small!
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Starlet was parked right behind us to also fill up. There was only 1 diesel pump so they filled up after us. We had to move as a local fishing boat wanted to get petrol. He also wanted to know if we would swap boats with him! So we departed the fuel wharf and sat at the entrance for around half an hour and Laust had the drone filming us. The yellow submarine was also in action again. It was very calm conditions and very pleasant just sitting enjoying the warm sunshine.
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We discussed the watch system and it was agreed Robbie does 9 – 12, Peter does 12 -3, I do 3 -6 and Heidi does 6-9. (Am and pm) The person going off watch has to make the new O.O.W. (officer of the watch) a tea or a coffee to ease them into their shift! This will be different for us as we are not used to having a regimented schedule so it will be interesting. We have also never had crew before – only guests!
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Robbie Bar-B-q’d some fillet steak for dinner and I made our vegetable bake in cheese sauce. All watches went well, Heidi came up one early (5am) as her watch was set wrong but we sat and had a cup of tea and just as I was about to go down to sleep a ship appeared on the AIS, “Tiger Guan Gdong” and sure enough the CPA (closest point of approach) was .2 of a mile to us, too close. So we monitored it for a while and it did not appear that the ship was going to change course, so I radioed him. He did not answer the first call but I called again and then answered, with very good English. I stated that we were going to pass very close and what was his intention? He stated that he would change course to Port and we would cross Starboard, to Starboard. I also changed course slightly to Port to give us more room. Heidi was comfortable with that so I headed down to bed and slept really well.
January 9th: I never woke up until 10:30am. Again it is a perfect day, blue sunny skies, warm and flat seas. Robbie had my breakfast ready for me in the fridge, Papaya, Kiwi fruit, strawberries, banana, yogurt and muesli. It was very nice. The others had all theirs earlier. We had a great day, sitting in the sun on the bow, reading on the fly bridge and generally very relaxing. We had a simple dinner of Sausages with new potatoes and salad.
The watches were very uneventful and most of us are reading, Peter is on his computer sorting 3,700 photos from the Med.
January 10th: Another uneventful night, Heidi and I had a good change over and off to bed I went. I woke at 8:30am today to a 2 metre swell, so it’s a bit rougher and about 11 knots of wind so more than yesterday but still not so bad.
Breakfast today was Kristie’s speciality – Avocado on toast, topped with sliced tomato, then crispy bacon with a poached egg on top. Very nice although conditions were a bit roly during the preparation but not so bad!
The wind has stayed a constant 10.5 to 11 knots all day. We have all had a good day reading, sorting photo’s, writing blogs, or sleeping! So we can post a blog through the satellite phone but it’s too expensive to send the photos so they will come when we get internet again.
Just as we were cleaning up after dinner one of the rods went off. Robbie was in the engine room so Peter Heidi and I ran for the rods. It was the back rod that a hook up but as Robbie arrived it dropped off. We put all three rods back in and about 1 minute later one of the side rods went off. This time with success, we landed a nice yellow fin Tuna, she was a little fatty around 5 kilograms.
We called up Starlet and they had also hooked up a nice Tuna, what a nice way to end the day at sunset.
We expect to arrive in Mindelo, Cape Verde around 9am on the 14th Jan at this stage but that could change if conditions improve. We are averaging 6.1 knots so far. Our current position is 22.05.0 North – 20.41.9West course 220 true.
Atlntic
