Alpaire Day 13

We had a great run overnight, 190 miles, and at noon were 570 miles from the finish. The wind seems to be a bit stronger at night so that we were able to maintain our speed and run deeper, particularly in the gusts. The guys on watch have done a great job taking advantages of the wind shifts in the gusts. The other boats that we follow did: Furia 184 miles, Taistealai 166, Bam 177, Crackerjack 176.

We are encountering lots of sargasso weed. Since the prevailing wind and current is from the East it is hard to understand how it gets down here. At times there appears to be a cross swell from th NE leading to a confused sea. But the sargasso sea is a long way North of us.

I must also return to our friend Orion and its ARC across the night sky. The belt becomes a zip and Orion appears on its side at the beginning and the end of its ARC. In the middle of the night Orion is as upright as the rest of us, whatever that means. For the same reason the moon also appears very strange to our eyes when it rises. It is on its side. Des thinks that it is under the influence (of moonshine). It is now a waning crescent and 35% full.

Today we have company from two US catarmarans who appear to be making the crossing together. We also have the odd dolphin who visits.

The crew is now sharply polarised, the haves and the have-nots. Those that have are seen to regularly stroke theirs in a Confucious like pose. I am not sure if this is related to the transoceanic sailors delusions that I wrote about yesterday. I don't believe that I suffer from same as I will need to buy cotton wool this Xmas.

I mentioned scurvy yesterday - you know it plagued seafarers for centuries. Britain and France fought the Seven Years War in the middle of the eighteenth century.  Out of 184,899 men raised or rounded up for the war, 133,708 died from disease, primarily scurvy, while only 1,512 were killed in action. The situation on the good ship Alpaire is of course better. We still have a few oranges, lemons and tomatoes left. I think the lemons were bought for gin and tonic (which probably damages the scorbutic efficacy of the fruit). As the skipper has reserved all gin for the fish catch our stocks are exceptionally good. Tonic is supposed to be good for warding of mosquitoes but fortunately there are not among the pests we have on board.

Back to fishing. We have been getting a few small flying fish on deck most mornings. This morning we got a large one. In fact it was so large that the crew thought it was a tuna that had empathy with our feelings of inadequacy (as fishermen) and had committed hari kari to redeem our self esteem. It is now sun dried bait. A long tailed skua had a good look at it but was not fooled. It is clearly immune to the transoceanic delusions of the rest of us.

We have had reports of the weather in Ireland, storm force winds and heavy rain. We are enjoying clear blue skies on a crisp blue sea. Shorts and tee-shirts is the dress code day and night. The Confucian disciples on board say that this all part of the way of nature Yin and Yang. It all balances out. You must suffer so that we have the pleasure of blue water sailing. Me thinks Yang is in Switzerland controlling us all.

We feel we are on the home strait now with a good wind forecast to take us to St Lucia, and a race to the finish with the objective of overhauling Taistealai.

All the best from the good ship Alpaire.