Day 19

Day 19 in the middle of the Atlantic and the contestants are losing the plot. Dad and Jen are in the cockpit, writing the blog in the growing dusk.

Had a really good day. Sunny and warm and after motoring through the night we made a good course under main and genoa this afternoon. Light winds, flat seas and unexpected beam reach made for a very pleasant afternoon. Back on the motor now though. BOOOOOO.

Big news of the day: a fish!! Well....... almost a fish. In the middle of a frantic hour of activity involving 5 different sail configurations, the reel finally screamed again! Dad abandoned the auto-helm and leapt to the rod. I was sent down to get the gaff, a towel, some alcohol and a kitchen knife, all in different locations, whilst mum and Marcus cleared the cockpit and dad trailed a 2ft mahi mahi behind the boat. We were just about ready when it got away with a final wiggle. Noooooooooooooo. Dad said it was iridescent purple and looked delicious. Since then, no more fish action. Damn these denizens of the deep.

In better food news, we dined tonight on luscious Fray Bentos pies - the first repeat of the journey - not known for their nutritional value but famed for their minging yet delicious pastry top. These followed a starter of the hottest thai salad in the history of the world. Mum has been growing mung beans into bean sprouts (as you do if you're a 70s hippy chick) and we had these with red caddage, tomato (one left now) and a thai sauce plus chunks of ridiculously hot Canarian red chillis. Very good. More mung beans growing in the sink as we speak.

Chief Engineer dad fixed a leaking water pipe in the engine at 8.30am this morning having mulled over the source of the drip for half the night. He couldn't fix the compass light at present as it involves removing the head lining (ceiling) but has identified the problem.

We passed the 1000 mile to go mark at 05:59 last night (one minute before the end of Marcus' watch) and are now on the last chart fold, past the 45 degree line and past 2/3 of the way. Our discussion at tea time however established that only mum actually wants to get there (for Pina Coladas in a beach bar)! A really beautiful evening bobbing along at 1.3 knots before we decided we'd better switch on the engine and Marcus shared his Christmas Fudge bars with us all which was great.

No more ships today, but one plane last night, one piece of polystyrene rubbish and....... WILSON, the errant football from Castaway. Unfortunately for mum, Tom Hanks was nowhere to be seen.

Spirits remain sky high and we're having a great time. It's really fun and weird but great.

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