Shooting stars and beard trims

January 20 Day 11

It was great to see the sun again today and the wind kept up a constant 10-14 knots so we had a very easy day, with Ginger the Gennaker keeping up a good speed all day long.

Our only little drama was getting Ginger down when we were approaching a squall. Inadvertently both Rowan and Tom hit minus 20 on the autopilot and when they started pulling the snuffer sock down, the wind was at the wrong angle and the sail got wrapped around the forestay. With the sail flapping furiously poor Rowan held onto a rope and got a nasty burn, but with help from Luke they finally got it all back in the sock and sorted.

The only other excitement was Luke trimmed his beard and then got Han to give his hair a number 3 cut, she did a very good job, teasing him by leaving one long stripe.

Luke’s new hair cut, with Han’s creative addition!

Happy to have less hair

We made good progress even if we are heading a bit north to keep the wind at the right angle. A very gentle enjoyable day. We had one small bird around for a while skimming over the waves, not anything we’ve seen before, and certainly didn’t look like a sea bird. Amazing what it is doing so far from land out here. It looked way too small to fish for food.

It was a wonderful clear night and we sat out and watched the stars which put on a brilliant display. Rowan had heard there should be a comet in the early evening. We never saw it, although Luke did see a massive shooting star.

Our night watches have improved dramatically now that Hannah is sharing her entertainment phone with us. She had managed to load up a few series and movies. We are all enjoying watching the Salisbury Poisonings.