Day 8

Swooshing along at 5.5 knots will do just nicely! Not too bumpy and the sun has been slightly stronger today which is nice. We've also removed our Cape Verdes way-point from the GPS route which immediately cut 82 miles off the "miles remaining" total making it seem like a very successful day indeed! We've decided that we're going to stay on a course of about 250 degrees and head much more directly for St Martin, unless advised otherwise by our weather routers.

It was a really nice night for watches last night, steady breeze and bright moon. Marcus in particular had a lovely 12-2am watch. When asked what he'd been up to he immediately replied "listening to the World Football Phone-In and eating Percy Pigs". Of an entire packet, won for predicting when we'd reach 749 miles to within 25 minutes, the rest of the crew saw just 3 pigs!!

Whale watching has intensified now that we've gone for more than a day without seeing any other boat on AIS. Everyone is now more concerned with wildlife spotting, with a few more Pantropical Spotted Dolphins this morning. Marcus also saw a bird (maybe a shearwater) and a bounty bar wrapper floating past.

Mum did a wash this morning and had to double-peg socks as it was so dodgy hanging them out. Dad and I also redid the ropes on Wanda to alleviate the chaffing meaning that Marcus had to hand steer for nearly 2 hours. We're really finding a rhythm now, though the days go very fast!

A mention must go to our GPS and wind indicators, which take up an inordinate amount of time, especially when you're the one on watch. Between then they show wind speed, course, speed over the ground, miles to destination, miles done and velocity made good (meaning the speed you are moving towards the final destination - not necessarily the same as the speed over the ground if you're not going in the right direction). These numbers continuously change and we've all found ourselves repeatedly doing the maths around the proportion of the distance done, how long that means we have left, how many miles we'll travel today at this speed etc. Hours of fun....

Thanks also to John for breaking the cheering news of a famous Saints victory at Old Trafford. Dussssssaaaaaaaaaannnnn Taaaaaaadddddddddiiiiicccccccc!

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