All at sea

Then suddenly the days have passed and you realize you’re starting to forget the stories you’d planned on telling!

We made the briefest of stops in Saint Helena. Long enough to enjoy some delicious coffee, English-from-the-80s grocery shops, and 699 steps. Rather large ones too (the steps that is), and I was feeling my sea legs so went slower and slower and…

The big (main?) event on board was in the last ten minutes of our approach to StH where after thousands of miles we slowed right down and the fishing reel began to sing. Jon hauled in a lovely yellow fin tuna. We had to be a little creative in the terminal phases as our gaff is still behind the counter at the shop in Cape Town where we bought it. The rubbish bags we bought were contemplated but in the end Jon went slightly medieval and dispatched the creature with a well aimed stroke from a rescue knife. It was slightly surreal to watch him consulting a YouTube video in one hand while filleting in the other on the aft steps!

Something has changed for me with the beginning of this new leg. Perhaps the lack of sleep is catching up with me, or the lack of green vedge (scoring fresh plums on St H was my major accomplishment) but I’m finding it hard to settle back into the watch routine. Each time we stop we do “normal” - sleep at night, awake during the day - and then revert to the 4h watches in the evening of the return to sea. Just like jet-lag is becoming harder each year, this feels a little bit more difficult.

Nevertheless it is only about a week until Fernando de Noronha, our next landfall. Rebecca will be joining us then and then we cross the equator and speed north into the easterly trade winds.

Lots of planning going into our arrival in Antigua with sails that need repairing, a mast inspection I’d like to have done, and a boat shopping list of little odds and sods that we are discovering would be useful.

I haven’t told anyone at work (oops now they just read it!) but I’ve decided to race Sula bassana in the RORC Caribbean 600, an offshore race starting from Antigua near the end of February. More friends from canada and France will join me for that then a short sleigh ride downwind to Samaná, Dominican Republic, where I’m going to dock up for a couple of months and return to Ottawa. I think…Read more