Day 4

I came on watch at 06:00 this morning and baked bread, which turned out well. The smell of fresh bread is very pleasing to the soul!

Not enough wind to sail again to day, and we motor steadily SE across an oily swell from the south, crossed by shorter wavelength waves from the Southeast. Surprisingly we saw several large loggerhead turtles close by. Fishing success - zero!

Justin and I refilled the diesel tanks from our jerrycans using 78 litres after 42 hours motoring. That is 1.9 litres per hour, which gives us about 1500 miles range. I hope we don't need to use all that! The weather forecast indicates that there is wind about 400 miles ahead, but that it is moving away from us. With luck we will find the trade winds on Tuesday 29th.

Emily produced a tour de force for supper with falafel, couscous, chickpea and tomato salsa, homemade hommous, and a richly coloured beetroot and cabbage pickle with a hint of chilli.

I had another go at the freezer and, poking around with the multimeter, I discovered a connection that was very loose. The filters were also very clogged with marine growth. After fixing these the freezer started working in an encouraging way, but now that I am back on watch at at four a.m. It has given up again.

However the good news is that there is enough wind to sail, and it's wonderful to have the engine off at last. The night is dark without a moon, and the Milky Way is a bright swirl of light across the sky, with the Southern Cross prominent on the chest of the Centaur and the Plough almost dipping into the sea to the north. Our phosphorescent wake is as bright as the Milky Way.