Reading: Meantime (Frankie Boyle)
Weather: Various torrential showers and some lightning overnight, but the sun came out during the day. Wind E4-5 gusting 6 …..
Thought for the day: The Dutch don’t hold back on their topics of conversation – no qualms at all!
Evening meal: Roast pork, roast potatoes and broccoli with an onion and mushroom sauce
Course: 150-180oC
Distance covered: At 1200 we had covered 152 miles (Log 4,337)
Wildlife headcount: Nothing at all – lifeless out here (well so far as we can see) ….
The wind, as expected, started to get up today, so for most of the day we were glad of the reef we had put in last night. We are pretty much close-hauled trying to get some easting (which the wind is not entirely helping with!) so it is lumpy. The sea is confused rarely matching the wind, with the waves looking a bit like they haven’t entirely grown up yet and are still argumentative teenagers fighting with each other. This doesn’t make life comfortable below some of the time, but you learn to adapt. With one of the crew on the other watch seasick, we are also covering some of her stuff – washing up and so on, so quite a bit of time is spent below.
We have had quite a few ships coming past – we are still in a kind of crossroads for heading into Rio, but the numbers are slowly decreasing. However, the number of oil rigs is growing fast again. We headed through past seven of them this afternoon, so it will be good to get clear of all of them. We were surprised at them being this far out given the depth, but if there are resources available, the Brazilians will grab them whatever the difficulties!