Alpaire day 9

Champagne sailing today, a gentle Force 3 to 4 from the East is speeding us towards St Lucia. It was 1291 miles away at noon. That means we have passed the half way point. We also crossed the 20th parrallel heading South West. Our 128 miles noon to noon is marginally better than Sully in his Oyster 53 Crackerjack (125 miles) and Bam (115 miles), a Jeanneau Sun fast 3600 (in the racing class) from Howth. The distances are low because of the light winds across the fleet.

The breeze started to build as forecasted during the night. Yesterday evening was as expected very light. We decided to keep the assymetric flying as darkness fell. Sometimes the wind got down to three or four knots.

Jan and Susan emailed us: "Great find that gennaker. Perhaps it improves the (mis-)match between the polar data in the router and reality. Perhaps not! Susan says: where was it stowed? has it a lot of mildew? why was it never seen before?" I don't think we have enough data to reach conclusions on the polar with or without the assymetric. The sea conditions are very important and whether or not we can get laminar flow across the sails. Susan's questions are easier to answer in reverse. Sails get mildew when stowed wet. This was still in the plastic bag! I suspect that it never got used before because of the 110hp Volvo Penta with a press button start. Me thinks a suspect capital investment appraisal process! Drury must have had a comfort break during that Board meeting. Notwithstanding this extravagance from the days of the Celtic Tiger, all the crew were delighted when it flew. A better investment than bank shares, me thinks.

Night time attire is now shorts, tee shirt and life jacket, no huddling under the shed. However that increases the risk of being hit in the face by a low flying fish. These nights the moon is 62% full and rose just after 01:00. Jupiter got out of bed at about 3:00 am followed by Mars at 04:30.

At 03:51 the assymetric came down of its own accord. Des and Drury were on watch and said they were planning to take it down anyway, but they would say that would'nt they. (No Mandy Rice Davis here to prompt them). The halyard parted due to wear at the sheaf at the top of the mast, after circa 16 hours of use in light conditions on a gentle sea! Bad design or specification by HR I think. It is also possible that Jupiter, Mars and Venus were giving us a fishing alternative. So we reset the twin headsails.

Then we had to deal with the vang. The hydraulic seals were leaking internally. We were losing pressure and the vang was unable to keep the leech of the mainsail tight. We tried to get the leech down by using the block and tackle from the check stays and pulling the mainsheet to centre line. It is now kompletely kaput with a nice buckle in the ram. So Richard disconnected it from the foot of the mast. The block and tackle is working fine. All of these things happened while we had the light of the moon. When Venus rose from her slumber at 05:30 all was ship shape.

Thank you for your emails. Some of our readers are most erudite.

Joxer writes "Congratulations on bagging a Dorado. These start life as Lampuki in the Mediterranean and become Dorado as they get older and eventually Mahi Mahi, but I was told many years ago by a Bajan (Barbadian???) that they have to be over 5kg to be Mahi Mahi. The big ones are best marinated and barbecued. I'm sure Wikipedia has a different story. London Dry is very expensive for killing and is better for drinking. Larius is cheaper but you can only get it in Spain at he right price. €7.00 for 1 litre in Spanish airports and its drinkable.

The pink rubber glove works as well as the yellow one but only at dawn. The yellow is better at dusk. The slower speeds are better for the Dorado and the higher speeds seem to be better for Tuna."

Joxer confirms his belief in pink power. The despatch methodology seems to me to be an excellent and humane use for gin and the fish tasted all the better for it!

Currently running directly to St Lucia at 6.5 knots.