Smoothly does it

We are getting slower! The winds are gently dropping as the Saint Helena high enfolds us, and we will have about 24-48h to crawl through. Boat speeds are down to 8kn which feels very relaxing - and practising our manoeuvres in this light breeze is perfect.

We had been flying our "code 55" (so named, because the width of the sail at half-height is 55% of that at the foot. It was the best thing we had left after the spinnaker blew - or so we thought. We had a bag with one more sail we had not tried yet, labelled 'code 0'. We expected a laminate sail, similar to the code 55, but it was a very tightly wound ripstop nylon instead, on a torsion furler with top down furling. The nylon is about twice the weight of the spinnaker and by the size of the bag, it seemed unlikely to be useful. But it is really a spinnaker! It added about 2kn to our speed (from 10kn to 12kn at the time) which was a big plus.

In the airs of 12kn that we have now, we are only doing 8kn with TWA of 140° but we're still making headway. Things look more interesting after Saint Helena.

The current ETA for Antigua is looking like the 10th February, so Jon is contemplating where he will be able to leave the boat early as that will be a long time away from home for him. Perhaps Martinique or somewhere with easy flights to Canada?

Boat maintenance has (touch wood) slowed to a minimum. We had a fuse blow on the generator (bad quality fuse actually, and the mounting is right on the motor so it gets shaken violently) which took me 3h to find. The hatch in Seb and Alain's cabin has a slow leak, and it sits at the water line because it is intended for emergency use. We will add more silicone to the seal when we next stop.

Food continues to be excellent. Perhaps a little too good compared to our lack of calorific output. We've had Breton 'far' (a sort of flan with prunes), fresh bread, lots of rice/tuna/tomato salads, and a delicious sausage and mango stew. Difficult to eat the mangos fast enough!

Having heard that StH is having delays on their supply ship, we brought 20 dozen eggs with us to barter/sell on the island, along with 4x lithium batteries that a German sailor who went shopping in Cape Town (while his boat was still in St H) asked us to transport. It's the kind of pay-it-forward gesture that makes the sailing community work (although we'll be happy to have leg room at dinner once we drop them off!Read more