More pics

Servicing the winches. 

Cutting up the plastics to recycle 

No burns in our galley

Shorts over board time. Must have been sitting too much!!

Danny and Tanya's turn in the galley

10 minutes after our arrival. Rum punch in hand. 

A fine pair! 

Jack sparrow . Not

Our route

More to come soon

Photo time

Atlantic Blog#19 - Saturday 13th December 2014

We have finished - time of 18 Days, 23 hours, 26 minutes, and a few seconds.  That's 18 DAYS across the Atlantic.  Very well done to Team Laros, and especially Laros herself.  24 years old this year, and she carried us through thick and thin.  Congratulations to James at the helm too!  We are elated.  Rum punch on the dockside was fab.  Breakfast is calling - seems to be the priority over showers. Today is a St Lucia holiday, of all days to arrival.  Call that timing.  Big party and fireworks tonight, just for our arrival.

That's it, I guess !!

Atlantic Blog#18 - Friday 12th December 2014

This our penultimate blog of the crossing is, uniquely, composed as we sit together over tea in the cockpit, with light drizzle coming in over the back deck - that's not lemon drizzle!  We must report a sad and emotion occasion.  Today at 11am we stood, silently, while Danny said his last farewells to a favourite pair of shorts, torn right through the back after 18 days of constant wear and tear, mainly through falling A over T on the foredeck so many times.  Johnny went up the mast - again - not quite so far this time, though at sparrow's and still in the dark, in a pitching sea, to re-secure the lower end of the spinnaker pole stuck up the track.  The weather was dreich (that seems to be Scottish for s***ty weather, according to Danny).  Another Team Laros job well done, and yes Danny was the trusty winchman again.  We've learned a new dance called the pole-ka.  It involves moving the pole from one side of the boat to the other on a regular basis.  We have not been able to hold a steady course direct to St Lucia (which seems like the thing to do to us, this close in) because of the enormous swell hitting our stern quarters, and the wind directly down the line.  It's like a rollercoaster in 4D, pitched, rocked, rolled and yawed, all in one.  So we have tried one course, then another, then a variant of the first - I guess you get the picture. The trip into St Lucia is now showing one decimal place on the mileage, so we are into double digits.  We are likely to come in behind Little Pea as she has kept her pace and lead, and we are just that little bit too far away from her to catch her on handicap now.  It is most appropriate at this moment to say a big thank you to all those who have helped and supported us across the Atlantic.  The land-based Team Laros members are split between Australia and England.  Susie and Nick in Sydney have been our tacticians, watching the competition and guiding us onto the wind.  Laura has been our trusty blog-master, converting our plain texts across the radio waves, to the blog for your consumption, as soon off the press as possible.  All of you for the cake recipes, they have been morale boosting.  And, of course, all of you who have been encouraging us on with your comments and emails.  We are told we have a fan base similar to that of One Direction, that's because we are only able to go in one direction, that's 260' .  We close, earlier than usual, to make the most of the transmission slots this evening. We will transmit once more tomorrow morning (hopefully), as we cross the line. You will probably see this as we do, on Yellowbrick.  So, for now, after 18 days and some hours (can we scrape in under the 19 days?), TTFN.  Catch us next on Facebook, after the rum punch, shower, shave, and a huge fat-boys' breakfast!

Atlantic Blog#17 - Thursday 11th December 2014

A day of surprises!  After a glorious latter part of the night, we sat down to breakfast as usual.  Muesli, honey nut crunchies, milk and orange juice, and Danny baking par bake rolls in the galley with coffee.  A dull thud.  A door banging closed in the heads perhaps.  From Deb 'Did anyone notice when the mainsail came down!'  What!! Thank goodness for the lazyjacks (guides down each side of the mainsail to pack it onto the top of the boom when lowering the sail).  Yes, the main had come down all of a sudden.  Chafe on the halyard cutting through it?? Luckily not, because we could see the remains of the shackle which used to be attached to the top of the mainsail in the pulley at the mast head.  Well, we could have used the topping lift as a makeshift halyard.  But Johnny thought best to retrieve the stronger proper halyard if we could.  Yes, that meant going up the mast.  So duty called on the skipper and up he went.  Stalwart winchman Danny was not prepared for a long slow pull up the mast, so on fast speed on the manual winch up J went.  He doth proclaim it was a bit wobbly, and you could see he was clinging on with muscles bulging.  But he got there, grabbed the halyard, and inspected everything at the top too!  New shackle, and back up she goes.  Back to normality.  Well, would you believe.  No sooner had calm returned, than the generator spluttered, coughed and stopped, during the battery charging double hour.  Phut!!  I don't think that was quite the word.  Pre-filter changed in quick time, only to find the electric pump with heart attack.  Into the spares, and yes, that cylindrical round thing, of which there are 3, is NOT a spare pump.  No spare pump.  Note, to self - buy 2 as replacements.  So we progress through our penultimate day without the aid of the generator.  Batteries charged with the engine alternators this evening, will keep us going 'til morning.  We have plenty of water, both in the tanks for washing and bottles for drinking, so we are fit for the next 48 hours.  But an interesting start to Thursday!!  Chocolate brownie made yesterday for tea, and cassoulet from the bilge tins for supper.  We are ready for another night of good winds and moonshine.  We are making good speed, but for one 5 knot/hour we have been in the 6s and 7s each hour today.  We passed into the 100s (199) just after midnight (Thu/Fri) so look set for a Saturday morning (UTC -4) arrival.  Yippeeeee!

Atlantic Blog#16 - Wednesday 10th December 2014

There are some experiences you only come across once or twice in a lifetime.  Danny and Tanya do not accord this statement to their night of torrential rain storms and strong winds.  They seem to get the worse watches for weather.  But tonight we have been blessed with a clear night's sky full rich with all the stars and planets you could wish to see, plus a golden yellow moon 3/4 on the wane which has lit up the sky for the majority of the night.  We are speeding along at an average of 7 knots/hour with our usual sail rig, headsail poled out and one reef in the mainsail. We must remember to knock the reef out in the morning!  The wind is a consistent 15 knots form just south of east.  We are just hoping that since our course has been direct to St Lucia, Little Pea will have to come up to our line and therefore lose time doing so (wishful thinking?).  More micro-waved cakes today.  A cinamon tea cake, for tea, and chocolate brownie for tomorrow!  May it last!  We will crack the 300 miles by watch change at 8 tomorrow(Thursday).  The islands of St Lucia and Martinique are growing bigger by the day.  All good.

We have passed the 300 mile point just now, so counting the hours down to a Sat morning finish, fair winds assumed.

Atlantic Blog#15 - Tuesday 9th December 2014

Today we finally managed to track down a very curious noise coming from the foredeck.  It appeared yesterday intermittently, and got louder and more frequent this morning.  It was like an incessant whine from a car brake left on.  After breakfast we couldn't stand it much longer so we scoured the front deck.  It was coming from the cruising chute bag, and when we opened it, it was plain to hear;  'let me out, fly me before I wither away!',  was the whine.  So we did.  And cruised along for 4 hours at 8+ knots.  In the glorious sunshine, it lifted our spirits to see the red, white and blue stripped pattern of the chute pulling us along.  We sacrificed a little north in our course, but it was worth it.  Little Pea, eat your heart out.  The rest of the day returned to routine headsail poled out to port and back on 260' heading for St Lucia.  We crossed the 600 mile line last night around midnight, and the 500 mile just as dusk drew on and sundowners came up.  Including tonight, 2 long watches and 2 short left for each watch pair before our day of arrival.  We added an extra hour to our day with clocks going back at 5pm.  Now only one more change to get us on St Lucia time.  As provisions are becoming ad hoc, evening meals are a complete surprise - whatever Deb and Tanya can put together from storage in the bilges for the chef of the day.  The home-made pizza and sweetcorn salad went down a treat.  Micro'd chocolate brownie was an interesting concoction.  It turned into a sweet desert consumed from a glass and spoon with afternoon tea!  The chocolate monster appearing in the microwave oven window as it cooked was something else.  Maybe we'll try another recipe next time.  Our daily YellowBrick ping shows us to be roughly in the same position relative to Class G fleet as the last few days.  We are staying a little north of the red line to hold onto the winds we have, with the option of some more south in our course over the last few days.  Beards are becoming very itchy, and razors sharpened.  Have no fear, there will be plenty of beard exposure on camera before the cut on Saturday, but it will be quick.  We are salivating at the options for our first 'I missed that so much in the last 3 weeks' .  Will it be a long hot shower, a cold beer from a real glass, or surf and turf with baked potato and green salad?  Maybe all 3 on the same day!  It's just 3 days away ...... wooooeeeehh!

ATLANTIC BLOG#14 - MONDAY 8TH DECEMBER 2014 (2 WEEKS AT SEA!)

You might think that living on top of each other for days on end, you'd become accustomed to fellow travellers traits.  Well, yes, I think so.  But every now and then, something new appears.  For example, Danny has not before been noted for his avid reading style - owl glasses on, head down, almost literally buried in a book (the paper type).  Yet the Atlantic experience, or the air, or something has turned this usually enthusiastic helmsman into a quiet, withdrawn, contemplative character who is to be found curled into the corner of the sprayhood disturbing no-one.  Perhaps the young fella is slowing down after all!  Deb, on the other hand, has taken up station on the rear deck with mighty fishing rod in hand, a new swanky type with a big drum and lots of line.  Today was the big one.  Yes, really, it was thii-----iis big.  Yes, it was - was being the operative word.  The recovery, they say is the most difficult part.  Bring on the next lure! Tanya has installed herself as the resident masterchef.  A mean vegetable curry was enjoyed by all, exhibiting a genius only working with leftovers can bring out.  Umhh, those chickpeas are something else.  Sea weed is on the menu tonight, there's much of it around.  It must be the confluence of many currents bringing lots of swirling masses of green in our path.   Deb's micro'd lemon drizzle cake went down a storm.  If the night watch snack time had not been enforced, it would have been consumed in one very short sitting.  Washing, winches, and water making took up the remainder of our day, and still we seemed to be lazing about the cockpit for most of the day.  It was rather cloudy, I was going to say uncharacteristically, but we have experienced quite a few cloudy days.  The moon last night was shrouded in a self-lighted halo effect, obscuring the best of her brightness.  Nonetheless, her relative brilliance through the night has a warming effect on the darker hours of the night watches.  Heat in the cabins below is beginning to tell.  The thermometer read 28' today, which doesn't seem much in the greater scheme of things (I'm sorry if that sounds inconsiderate to you all shivering in the wintery British conditions), but even with most hatches open, the effect is debilitating. Makes cooking a labour of love.  The sunshade currently residing on the port side of the bimini has been renamed the Glaswegian screen saver, just to accommodate Mr McCulloch's sun-hiding habit. We apologise to our readers for the late arrival of yesterday's blog.  Transmission airwaves appears to be overloaded at the appointed hour, so an afternoon transmission had to suffice.  Better luck today.  As I finish the blog this morning and prepare to transmit (Tuesday @ 8am), the trip is showing 598 miles to go.  Early Saturday morning, 18 days 23 hours and 59 minutes, is still looking possible, at 150/day.  We are currently on UTC -2 (Universal Time Co-ordinated, Greenwich Mean time in old money), so 2 hours behind our British readers.  We change to UTC-3 today, and UTC -4 on Friday, to bring us in line with St Lucia time (we should really be horizontal on Saturday to be in tune with Caribbean time).  So a finish time before 7am our time, and 11am your time is our aim.  How exciting is this?

Atlantic Blog#14 - Sunday 7th December 2014

Today has been one of the quietest and relaxed of the trip. The winds continue to blow from the SE at a steady 15-20 knots. Initially we have been maintaining a just-south-of-westerly course, as satnav tells us St Lucia is about 260' .  The weather forecasters are predicting lighter winds to the south, so about lunchtime as the wind shifted slightly to the south we changed our course more to the north.  Little Pea, Class G leader, has headed to our south.  This is not a race, you understand. Yeah, right!  So keep your fingers crossed for fair winds to the north.  Thank you to all for the microwave cake recipes, especially the Lemon Drizzle Cake again.  We are on our last gas bottle so trying to conserve on cooker use.  Generator is doing sterling work with water making, battery top up and washing, so in between our favourite cake, apart from Tanya's chocolate brownies (we're saving that for the last but one day), will be zapped up tomorrow.  There have been few notable events today.  Much book reading in evidence.  The daily routine of chopping plastics, wiping through the cockpit (main on-deck crew area) and saloon (sitting room) floors, and making sure everything is shipshape (tidy) in the galley (kitchen) in preparation for the next watch's (shift's) brew stop (tea break), has continued.  Last night and this morning we were down to our 2nd reef (sail size reduction) in both the main sail and the big sail at the front.  Progressively today, we have knocked out both, to a comfortable 1st reef in the main only, and that mostly because we have become accustomed to protecting the 1st batten car.  It remains firmly unattached to the mast (the main sail has thin strips of stout plastic running the full width of the sail maintaining a pre-stressed curve to aid efficient wing shape; the batten is attached to the mast track by an articulating arm and runner, the car).  Although our fresh food stocks are depleting rapidly, we continue to maintain the highest of culinary standards, with today's offering starting at late breakfast, with freshly squeezed carton of orange juice, scrambled dijons of ham and eggs, sautéed premier cru pomme de terres in a butter joue, served with crusty bread rolls and a selection of red berry jams.  Tea of coffee to complement, of course.  Lunch at 2pm:  finely rolled wraps with a thin coating of mayonnaise, the last of the fresh tomatoes and lettuce, a flavouring of mild tomato salsa, spiced with chorizo and salami slivers.  Finely selected Mr Robinsons' blackcurrants blended with mountain spring water to accompany them.  And for supper, vegetable ragou on a bed of cream of mashed potato.  Mouth watering menus!  How are we surviving the rigours of the Atlantic?

Atlantic Blog#13 - Saturday 6th December 2014

As Day 14 approaches, and the 1000 miles to go mark passes, it is beginning to dawn on the crew of intrepid Laros that the adventure is coming to a close.  We are not wishing our time away but the miles are seemingly skooting past. Each day brings its own trials and tribulations, but also its highs and memories.  We celebrated with warm bubbles 1800 miles under our belts, and 1000 to go, at 4.20pm this afternoon, a little earlier than predicted.  The wind swung to the south east last night, as Tanya and Danny grappled to keep Laros on course amid dramatic changes of wind direction and strength.  We have enjoyed fairly constant southeasterlies on our beam ever since, romping alone at 6s and 7s, and occasionally 8s.  We should be back to 150+miles/day.  Saturday in Rodney Bay seems a realistic prospect.  We each are selecting our chosen arrival time.  The day was glorious sunshine and relatively flat seas, and 3 of Laros' 10 winches were cleaned, greased and reassembled (making sleeping in the aft cabin when reefing the headsail soooooo much quieter!).  Plastics were chopped and stowed.  Meat in vacuum packed bags checked and thrown.  Sheets washed, dried and beds remade (how do you survive without a washing machine?).  And the bucket and cloth refrigerator tried - without success.  There are no fish in mid-Atlantic, fact, though the hardy among us continue to try their hand with the fishing tackle.  We caught sight of another boat on our port quarter perhaps 6 miles away.  She moved to our stern for the afternoon and was gone as dusk fell.  Today Danny found the music machine on board.  The only song appropriate, and I know many of you will be familiar with this, was The Mighty Atlantic by Runrig, followed, of course by their show-closing By the Banks of Loch Lomond. A fitting herald to dusk. Now we are enduring the Atlantic swell again, with a vengeance.  Corkscrewing at 7.5 knots under a cloudy moonlit sky will be one of the challenges remembered when it's all over.  The moon this evening at moonrise was the biggest, yellowest and brightest we have seen it. Full round and huge. It is with us all through the night.  We shall enjoy it each of the remaining 6 nights to StLucia.  How lucky are we!

Atlantic Blog#12 - Friday 5th December 2014

Laros has experienced almost every point of sailing in the last 24 hours, more precisely in the last 4 when Danny and Tanya fought torrential rain, and blows from the north all the way through to the south.  Unusually, we are striding along on port tack, at a good 6-7 knots, which we have named the washing tack. 6-7 knots has been about standard for today, thankfully, as the 4-5 knots was getting tedious.  Still, we covered 117 miles in the last 24 hours.  Fingers crossed, the stronger winds will now stay with us across the remainder of the passage.  We are looking forward to celebrating crossing the last 1000 mile mark tomorrow evening around sundowners, for which a bottle of bubbles will be chilled (OK, cooled) in the bucket on deck. Lots of water making today, some into bottles to go back into the front 2 water tanks which seem to be self-depleting over time. The fridges were cleaned out and plastics crushed and cut into empty water bottles. The 'Jerry the Rigger daily 3 minute rig check' proved its worth - we would still be straining to replace the boom gooseneck pin if not for a judicious eye over the all visible parts of the standing rigging this afternon.  Moon and stars have been much in evidence.  As the sun sets, so the moon rises, and vice versa during the 4-8 watch.  We are lucky to have a full moon now which will stay with us on the wane as we approach St Lucia.  Skies at night are a mixture of wind laden clouds and clear starlit skies.  During the day, we always seem to be in the middle of clear skies with weather clouds 360'm around us - an optical illusion no less.  We are resigned to less cakes on the last third of our crossing as we have just changed onto our last gas bottle, though micro-wave cake making is promised as the new alternative.  The culinary standard of meals just gets better and better.  Danny has become accustomed to serving fantastic breakfasts of fruit juice, mixed serial with fruit, followed by coffee and crusty bread and jam.  Deb served superb  lasagne and salad (the last of the fresh) this evening.  It might just be the day for a celebratory bread and butter pudding this evening!!

Atlantic Blog#11 - Thursday 4th December 2014

Spectacular sunrises and brilliantly coloured sunsets mark the two ends of our days.  Light airs are hampering fast forward progress, so we are down to scraping 5 knots per hour across the ground.  Keen to increase the pace, we flew the cruising chute in a number of guises this morning, first on the starboard tack, then on the port tack with the pole out to starboard, then as a spinnaker with the pole.  None proved devastatingly better than the genoa poled out, and all took us to the north of west.  So we eventually reverted to our standard rig, and took to doing other things around the boat.  We did pull the genoa down and inspect the halyard for chafe - all very good, as the leather sheath has done its work.  And a small tear in the UV strip at the foot was stitched to prevent any further damage from the frequent flogging of the sail.  Today was the first fishing day, though the extent of the catch was a tangled line between spool and fishing rod.  At least the lures were retrieved in tact.  You should see the size of Debs'.  If she catches a tuna with that, we shall be eating fish for the next week!  Tanya cooked an amazing pork and apple supper, a concoction which we named Pork Atlantique.  Johnny seems to have caught sleeping disease, as not only did he sleep through his off watches last night, but also 3 of the 4 hours on watch, Deb was oh so good to him.  James is making up for all those hours he lay idle in the first 10 days, now he is an almost constant helmsman.  And the fridge and freezer have been cleaned of the food past its sell by date, over board.  There has been much reading in evidence today, as our free time seems to be more now.  We put that down to less hands-on helming.  If we could just please have a little more wind, we would certainly sacrifice down time for the strictures of the helm.  Come on wind, do your best for us!  Our Yellow Brick pings show we are still maintaining what looks like a second position in Class G, though where the rest of the Cruising Division boats are, is obscure to us.  We saw 3 distant lights last night at 3, 6 and 9 o'clock from us.  That has been the extent of any contact over the past 48 hours.  The peaceful seascape and the brilliance of the sun though the day with its colours at sunset are truly magnificent and complement the lack of external human contact.

Atlantic Blog#10 - Wednesday 3rd December 2014

We are definitely in the tradewinds belt today as we have experienced consist NE/ENE winds all day. The swell has been much calmer than the last many days, though the wind strength has also lightened. We are averaging 12 knots of wind with full genoa poled out to starboard and a 1st reefed mainsail.  Big celebration today at 1540hrs as we passed our halfway mark - all downhill from here.  We are still maintaining around the 150 miles/day despite what appear to be light winds. Tanya and Deb baked more cakes, thanks to the Lemon Drizzle Cake recipe writers. The washing machine came into service for a mammoth 3 loads of washing, the back deck looking like a Chinese laundry on payday. And the moon, nearly full, is shining tonight across the water ahead of us like a searchlight.  The casualty of our battery situation is the fridge/freezer which, due to excessive power consumption, has been switched off.  Our meat is vacuum packed so will last to St Lucia, but most other things are melting away, especially the butter as we have now turned west. UHT milk cartoons are in plenteous supply so daily milk for breakfast and teas present no problem.  We shall try the bucket and evaporating cloth trick to see if we can reduce the temperature of the sundowners, a priority for high morale.  Hardship comes in many forms depending upon how you view life.  We may not have chilled consumables, but we have sun, sea, food, clean air, and great companionship.  Our greatest fear is that our last 10 days will fly past.  We shall make the most of them.

Atlantic Blog#9 - Tuesday 2nd December 2014

My blog spot is usually in the wee small hours, either before midnight in the 8-12 watch, or just after.  Every Atlantic crossing blog has mentioned the swell.  I tell you these things because timing is everything.  Last night (Sunday/Monday), at the appointed hour, I posted my blog for transmission (usually around 8am).  All reads well, don't you think.  Then came the swell.  Team Laros agree we have not experienced anything like it.  Coupled with bouts of very strong wind (30-35 knots), we were bounced around as if in a washing machine. Danny and Tanya endured a 90 degree lateral roll (as the log records) with a gopher that covered the bimini and soaked Danny to the core.  Then came the most beautiful day we have had.  Sunshine, yes, glorious sunshine, relatively flat seas - none of the excesses of swell of the night, and good winds.  The team solution to the broken pole gooseneck was applied, and after much pulling and pushing, rigged up.  Awesome! And just in time for sunset, for we were not going to ride the waves like last night again.  And so it has been, pole fixed with a bolt from the rudder jury rig kit (how bizarre is that), a piece of gash white hose, and lots of whipping cord, and we are poled out heading west in an  orderly fashion.  The swell is still quite evident, and those in the stern cabin confess to bouts of sleeplessness as a result, but we are heading directly to our destination at between 6-8 knots.  We have been very lucky that the winds have not died, for we still have no solution to the broken bottom mainsail track car.  But our batteries are back up to snuff, and James (the autopilot) is doing sterling work.  Water was made again yesterday, so showers today (I don't know why nobody did showers yesterday!). If the sun shines, and the skies hold the NE tradewind clouds again, we shall be sailing along on cloud 7.5 (let's keep 9 for the last few days).  We promise ourselves an 18 day finish (that's probably 18 days 23 hours 59 mins 59 secs!), though tomorrow round about sundowners, we shall crack the half way point (9 days and 7 hours).  So I sign off at 4.45am.  Back to my usual blog spot tomorrow!  Thanks to you all for your blog comments.  We read them with great interest yesterday after the download.  (p.s. beards are very much in evidence, of the salt and pepper variety, and the dog bowls are taking a major hammering - the swells!).

Atlantic Blog#8 - Monday 1st December 2014

Pinch, punch, first of the month.  Well, it's a bit of pinching oneself to realise we are one week through our ARC experience already.  We have promised ourselves we shall celebrate half way through the passage which, if winds keep up, will be on Wednesday at the 9 day point.  Not counting chickens but that puts us in St Lucia on 12th December at 18days.  We have experienced continuing strong winds today, more easterly than up to now, and have taken a more southerly route overnight tonight, to settle Laros down a little for a more comfortable night.  We have changed tack (to port) which has upset the dynamic of boat; those comfortable in their port bunks are now rolling to starboard for the first time.  Dirty clothes are lining up in droves to jump into the washing machine first thing in the morning.  The watch routine is becoming written in stone, with little nuances of timing - breakfast has now become brunch, with a competition between watches as to who can come up with the most original use of defrosted items, and then leftovers for lunch. Is it to be the pork, or beef, or chicken or lamb for supper this evening?  Big decisions. The short night watch (only doing the 12 'til 4 watch) support the long night watch (8-12, and 4-8) in the morning, making the breakfast and moving aside for the first showers.  Oh, the intimacy of a small boat on the ocean waves! Yesterday a small piece of fractured metal caused consternation, found idling on the deck as we swept the cruising chute into its bag.  Today we found its brother, as the inboard end of the spinnaker pole come down in Danny's hands.  We shall see what whipping chord and judicious placement of leather strapping can do to keep the pole in action. Rather spookily, we have achieved yet another 157 miles yesterday, right on daily average.  The chart plotter is showing 1622 miles to St Lucia (0230 on Tuesday).  Thank you for your blog comments.  We can't see them instantly here but are hoping we can get a download every now and then.

Atlantic Blog#7 - Sunday 30th November 2014

A day of medical experiences, not the highlights but nevertheless noteworthy.  Deb's broken toe was unstitched by Doctor McCulloch amid shrieks of pain (low threshold).  Danny's head injury, caught against the panelling above the sink bled profusely (not), and his burn blister on his arm  caused severe pain (I don't think so).  Flying fish lept on the deck kamikashi style during the night and early morning, so the bbq is open for business tonight. The filet steak, the only meat not vacuum packed in the freezer slowly defrosting, is on this evening supper table, with brandy pepper cream sauce, flambéed of course.  Fishing lines are out and only a single bite, huge fish (yeah, right) but not landed.  The sun did come out at last, so up went the cruising chute, only for an hour before clouds and squalls rolled in to block out the sun and overblow the chute.  Danny is in his element at the wheel when the waves and the winds get up.  A steely determined look comes into is eyes, especially when catching a boat dead ahead, as this evening.  Either we're flying or they are chugging along.  It's exciting to be in such close contact with anotherboat; some seen on the horizon, lights by night or sails by day.  Watermaker has performed very well again today, filling the tanks for showers all round tomorrow.  Please keep your emails coming in ( mnem9@sailmail.com).  It's great to hear from you all.