The Flying Lentil The log of Festina Lente, Sigma 38

What a dark night. The gibbous moon only appears at about 0400, and as it is cloudy much of the time the rest of the night is pitchy black. As expected the wind increased at about midnight to average 25 knots so we snugged down to the 3rd reef and with the wind on our port quarter are very comfortable. I am truly glad we are not going the other way though as it would be horrid. Lynda, as ever, is magnificent considering she used to be nervous in these dark conditions.

The marvels of modern communication have allowed us to find someone in the Cape Verdes to help with our electronics problems , and so for the last 72 hours we have been racing south . At the present rate of progress we are due to arrive off the islands at dawn tomorrow, and indeed do not want to get there any earlier as apparently there is a pretty impressive acceleration zone to transit, and with our current base wind I dont fancy doing that AND steam nav (we only have paper charts of the area) in the dark.

We have been experimenting with the towed generator, and it is very impressive. Once we get the battery situation sorted we should be able to charge the whole system using it for 6 hours a day. It puts out so much charge at these speeds its socket was getting hot, but we solved that by taking it apart and cleaning it for better contacts. At present we are using it all the time and able to use all our electronic bits and pieces and it is strangely exhilerating sitting down to dinner together in the cabin whilst outside in the dark the boat rushes on though impressive seas , kept in perfect control by the windvane or autopilot ,with no input from us at all!

18 54 N 24 09W All well.