Alpaire Day 5

The wind deserted us yesterday evening. A large cloud, nine miles across, with lots of rain around mid-night put a dampner on the wind as well. We had four to six knots of breeze for about six hours. At least it was still behind us. We covered 137 miles from noon to noon. A 200 mile run is just an aspiration (one of Des's many dreams). The swell is now a lot less as well and the motion of the boat is easy.

We have company here with one boat to the North all night and during the day. He is carrying a spinnaker, gybing back and forth, but usually is within 3 to 10 miles of us. At one stage last night we were struggling at 3 knots but he was doing 8 even though it was a clear sky and he was only 3 miles away! On the SSB radio call some said that they were using their engine. They must have a lot of diesel.

We are still sailing North of due West (280 degrees) on the fastest course that suits our rig. The direct course to St Lucia is 257 degrees true. The weather gribs are suggesting that the wind will get fairly light here in the next few days so that early tonight we may gybe and head sharply South. We will make our decision on the latest available forecast. Our direct distance to go is circa 1830 miles, in a straight line.

When the rain cloud passed we had a beautiful peaceful night with the moon again providing great light. Then before dawn we had Jupiter, Mars and Venus in procession exactly aligned and following the moon. The Ancient Greeks would have concluded that this miraculous configuration was a potent of things to come. Why were those three gods marching in formation? What was up? Fortunately Mars was not first - that would surely have meant war! We decided that it was the dawning of the age of Alpaire. Check it out if you get a clear sky in the morning. Better still write the lyrics!

We got our answer at 09:30 this morning. The swivel shackel attaching both jibs onto the swivel for the furler at the top of the foil parted. Both jibs came down. So Peter Pan had to take to the air and follow Venus into the sky to retrieve the furler. We were back in action with both jibs within 90 minutes. We also had time to address some wear on the jib sheets and on the topping lift. The latter is particularly curious because it comes out of the front of the mast with no allowance for the fact that the pole can be set almost at right angles to the center line of the boat.

Todays competition is to identify Peter Pan. I think that Ellen McArthur has a soul mate.

We had tuna for lunch at last, but out of a tin. We have concluded that the Wahoos are slippery customers just like their first cousins - the Yahoos in the Law Library! Aonghus you might forward this to Patrick O'Reilly as we had to guess his email and it bounced. We promise no more insults to your bretheren in return.

We are still using a yellow squid and a fishy thing. We put the lines out at dawn and will run them through the night. We have also had a full range of speed. So even if the Yahoos are a bit slow....

We think that Ria is correct. The bird was a long tailed skua (stercorariuslongicaudus, page 167 Collins guide to Birds of Britain and Europe).

Happy ship, all ok here.