Wednesday 13th February
First of all it has hardly stopped raining throughout, its 3.15AM on my watch. So although we all use our eyeballs it has b een mainly a radar watch for other shipping. At about 11.30 Val woke me as there were 3 ships in our neighbourhood. however no problems with any of them. Then maybe an hour later I'm woken up again. This time there is a pair of headlamps coming towards us from the port bow, moving rapidly. Wallets at the ready to hand over! It was not pirates though, but a patrol boat, with blue light. He had a long look at us, checking out the ARC flags and no., and when we unfurled the tricolour he realised that we could be dangerous and off he went!
Then at 2.45 on my watch a large merchant ship came up behind us quite slowly and gradually came to about 1 mile from our starboard beam. I flashed him several times with the search light and got an acknowledgement from the bridge. He is now about 5 miles ahead. So it all keeps you awake and alert, even in the rain. I put out the jib to boost our speed and save on fuel, as we are still motor sailing along. Right now we are opposite San Fransisco!, about 60 miles out to sea. I cant understand this as the instruments show we have been going south the whole time. All is well on board and now that the generator is running, we used it today for the air con to kill some of the heat.
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