Hi there Star Chaser Watchers

Monday 30th November 12.32 Boat Time – 13.32 GMT
20.03N 37.22W – 1412nm to go – 8.2 knots

Hi there Star Chaser Watchers,
Well we can report it is a typical late November morning here.
The sun is shining, a cooling breeze caresses our weary backs (ha ha) and fluffy white cumulus scud across a crystal blue sky. How is it your end?
Having yesterday demolished our first catch in DLT wraps/sandwiches (Dorado, lettuce and tomato, in case you hadn’t guessed), Barry got the rod out again and pulled in another, slightly bigger this time. It fell to Handy Andy to do the honors expertly and in no time we had him gutted, filleted, bagged and in the freezer, with en route the freshest sushi you ever did taste for all those who fancied it. Not much later another catch (a little tuna!), but just as the other day, the second catch wasn't quite big enough, so was released back into the ocean. With any luck we’ll get his big brother next time to make a decent meal of them.
We had a close encounter of the friendly kind yesterday afternoon. ARC yacht 116 Elena flying a fancy parasail spinny closed on our starboard beam, and we engaged in some double Dutch chit chat over the VHF. She has a bright yellow hull of such a distinctive color that I thought at first it must be Marigold, John. We all stood up and waved as she came closer and in our typically gentlemanly way we wound in a chunk of headsail to allow her to pass ahead of us. Given our subsequent view of her silhouetted against a beautiful sunset, I have to admit it was worth it.

Another interesting venture yesterday was bravely undertaken by David ‘Dai the Bread’: fresh bread from the shop only stays fresh so long, so after finishing our last bought stuff the day before, David was the first to turn his hand at bread making on the boat. The mix was prepared, proved in the sun, and committed to the oven, but for some reason failed to rise. This could have been something to do with the oven being set to 230 Fahrenheit rather than 230 Centigrade. A casual observer might have noticed the F and the C on the two scales on the oven thermometer, but it is obviously not that simple. Better luck next time. After sampling the resulting ‘pudding’, it was with much regret consigned to Davy Jones (another Welshman, one assumes). The spot was recorded in a special sighting by our celestial twins, Keith and Andy. Bricks anybody? To be collected at Star Chaser, mid Atlantic….

Boogie gave the 2100 Blue watch an intensive teach in on squalls, and with all this resulting knowledge, we only caught the corner of one with lighter wind veering temporarily SE and a few spots of rain (or was it good old luck after all?).
Later in the night the wind changed more permanently, and White watch had the pleasure of a night time gybe to avoid being pushed too far north. Back on track and on port gybe to minimize time in unavoidable squalls which tend to travel from port astern to starboard ahead.
The wind picked up a bit and we have had two consecutive 24 hr runs of 184 &183nm
Log is showing 1432nm sailed, so not far off half way, the only regret being that with these winds our anticipated mid Atlantic swim in mill pond conditions will have to wait till next time. Shame!

Bye for now,
We’re all missing you all madly – honest!
Stewart

PS Had my third lesson on downwind helming from an infinitely patient Boogie this morning. I’ll get the hang of it eventually. Have to admit it’s slightly different from Grey Dove (laser)

Note at time of sending (1530 GMT)
Just finished changing our headsail over from port to starboard, so no longer goose winging it, but back to a ‘normal’ port gybe. Put the pole down, but still attached to the mast, so she’s ready to go up if need be.
Less than 1400nm to go now and only 30 odd minutes of westing before we hit halfway… (which is not 30 minutes sailing for the non sailors and navigationally challenged amongst you, but 30 min on the chart, corresponding to about 30nm, so maybe 4 to 5 hours!).