The Flying Lentil The log of Festina Lente, Sigma 38

As predicted the last 24 hours has been very light , but to our delight we have still managed 120 miles – more if you include the current. I guess thats the upside of passage making in Festina – she may not have the space or creature comforts of other boats , but give her light airs and flat seas and she will keep trickling on at what for many would be indecent haste! We are already more than 50 miles ahead of our friends in “Brain of Pooh ” despite having left after them.

The spinnaker has been up from dawn til dusk , and the routine is that before it gets dark we change to whatever rig will allow Festina to look after herself with minimum input from us . In the case of last night it was full main and poled out jib top , with the windvane steering and following the wind rather than keep adjusting the sails. I am ashamed to say that I fell asleep on my early morning watch , sitting on the companionway seat and head down on the hatch! I woke to find a light on the horizon – our first sighting of anything since we left – but luckily it was a the bright decklights of a huge fishing boat and it was many miles away. Lynda was delighted as she had an extra hour in bed!

The seas are if anything even flatter today , and if it wasnt for the fact that there is a somewhat daunting distance to cover , I could wish that the conditions would last all the way. The forecast is for another 24 hours of light stuff , gradually returning to the more typically boisterous conditions typical of the region. We have some sort of Petrel flitting around us most of the time , and this morning quite a lot of small fish jumping giving an indication of the mayhem that goes on under the surface. By the time I got a line out the sun was too high and all activity had stopped. We did however have a flying fish on the deck and he was gratefully gobbled for breakfast , but what we need is a whole squadron to land together as one flying fish a large repast doth not make!

By tea time we should have covered 1/8 th of the distance and will celebrate with some Christmas cake. We have a small crisis as Lynda has suddenly become hooked on Patrick O’Brian , and we only have 3 on board , which just goes to show that our problems are little ones.

16.05 N 29.21 W All well ,