6th November – 14th November

Over a week since we last saw land, when a rising sun lit up the unmistakeable silhouette of Table Mountain far behind us, and we are slowly settling into life at sea.

At best relaxing, at worst dull, our world extends to a horizon 4 miles away crowned by a sky bigger than any I have seen before. On a roughly north westerly course, the sea slowly warms our day slowly shifting forward to accommodate the changing motion of sun and earth. Progress is slow, with 150 miles in a day considered a good average, yet slowly the miles to our first stop in St Helena have counted down, from 1700 when we started to just over 60 now.

Our days are leisurely, the passing of time marked by meals, the intervals filled with minor maintenance, reading, sleeping chess and conversation. Early in the trip we supplemented this with fishing, but after three fish (long finned tunny) the freezers are full and our appetite sated, and we can’t catch more than we will eat.

Night brings the only real hard work we do, as we take watch duties that run through until morning. A 2 hour on, 4 hour off pattern is slowly taking it’s toll, every time the alarm goes off it feels as though you only just fell asleep, and the first minutes awake are always hazy. Apparently this never really passes, so a couple of nights moored at St Helena will be a welcome chance to recuperate before setting off on the twenty(ish) day trip to Barbados.