[password] Ridingmore
[position] 14 23.283N 51 12.57W
[weather] Trade winds, but sloppy, rolly seas which are making sleeping particularly challenging!
[speed] 5-11 knots
[status] Annnnnnnnnd we're over 3/4 of the way there! Everyone is excited! Izzie has especially done well given we have been sailing now for some 9 days - here longest time at sea to date!
We are starting to see the floating seaweed Sargassum, which is seasonally renowned for its density and prevalence in some parts of the western Atlantic and Caribbean seas. Over the last couple of decades, Sargassum has become particularly dense, with land runoff and climate change increasing nutrient availability and temperature, and encouraging growth. Over the summer months Sargassum forms dense mats that cover many kilometers of oceans, impeding boats, blocking pumps and engine intakes, and drastically altering the light regime under the surface of the ocean. Here, Sargassum poses no threat to us, as it clumps together in small lines of tide and wind which we can sail straight through. Sargassum has many benefits too, as it creates floating habitat for a wide variety of marine animals, from tiny crustaceans right the way up the food chain to fish. Culminating in the top of the food chain, the likes of the Mahi mahi, which fortuitously (given that the last of our Mahi Mahi
was consumed last night) we hooked and landed another this afternoon:) With the threat of a vegetarian lentil korma curry for dinner tonight now being staved off, Fletch (and I!) are over the moon!
Protein sorted, but bananas?? Sheesh. We've had our last apple today, theres a few more oranges left, but its the bananas that are most vexing. We brought with us 4 large bunches, one of which ripened beautifully and provided sweet yummy breakfast for all for 3 or 4 days, as one would expect. But the other three bunches appear to be on strike... We've tried co-cuddling them with different selections of fruit, separating them and leaving them in the sun, iterations of wrapping them in plastic, paper, tin foil, cloth, letting them breath, coddling them, and the height of desperation this afternoon, putting them in the oven. Results?? Nada! We are still dealing with small, hard, green (apart from the oven-roasted black) logs, that are inedible! The best idea on how to ripen bananas, free texted to +8816 3159 1645 at messaging.iridium.com wins a beautiful beer-battered fillet of the freshest Mahi mahi known to man!

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