[password] Ridingmore
[position] 16 53.183N 24 59.47W
[weather]
[speed] 5-12 knots
[status] After a couple of hours stop in the most western island of the Cape Verdes, Santo Antao, where we finalised the reefing systems for our brand new main, we were off! Somewhat surprisingly, it was a bit like grand central, with Patea only one of about 300 boats departing the Verdes this season, and in the several hours that we were on anchor, about ten boats passed us heading west, all bound for the Caribbean or South America. With a perfect 15 - 25 knots on the beam we headed out, and slowly managed to catch the other boats on the horizon. The first night we could see three other yachts in the dark nights sky, but by day two all sign of human company had disappeared and we were gliding along in our own company:) Big hook up yesterday, but unable to slow the (no doubt enormous, but unseen!) fish down, we lost our big red'n'black Cantab lure that had secured us so much protein over the last few months. A few hours later and we had the pleasure to watch a small school of
dolphins and a large school of truly enormous tuna (>2m long) smashing smaller fish, continually hitting them at speed at the surface and blasting into the air many meters, tail fins thrashing all the way. Everyone was on deck and absorbed by the aerial display, and it was a truly spectacular experience to see these apex predators hunting.
Its day 3 now, and we've been making great progress, averaging about 7-8 knots, and covering about 170 - 190 nm per day. Everyone seems to have found their sea legs, after a potential dodgy last Cape Verdian restaurant meal, and Kath and Iz are baking date and peanut butter muffins to celebrate being a quarter of the way across the Atlantic today! Just 1500 miles to go;)
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