South Atlantic expedition begins

Day 2 : After leaving Cape Town

Yesterday morning continued in the same vein as the previous evening, motoring with fog, having to blow the foghorn within every two minutes. Then, as lunchtime came (with hotdogs and onions) the skies cleared, the sun came out, the wind teased us and the Spinnaker made an appearance - all five minutes of it until the wind died away, but it was worth it. 

We did, however, manage to get the Jib out for a couple of hours. We heard and smelt the breath of a whale passing our stern in the early hours and have numerous pods of seals basking in the sun along our way. Whilst my watch partner in crime Andre and myself were on the 2-6pm watch, five of our crew decided to do a little fishing. Right at the end of our shift Wavy noticed the line tension and pulled in a tuna, although it was a team effort, Manuel, who had dreamt of catching a Tuna since a little boy, decided it was his prize and had his celebratory photo proudly holding it up - Josh and Manuel gutted and filleted the tuna, and with teriyaki sauce it became dinner along with our sweet and sour pork and egg fried rice - delicious. 

Over the last 24 hours my shift patterns have changed with extra shifts on single standby which have given only 2 x 3-hour breaks between on watch or standby, the rest of the crew have this to look forward to as the shift patterns roll forward - good luck with that one!

All the crew are in good spirits with everyone getting into the shift patterns, we hope for the forecasted good winds today and have our sails up ready. 

Dawn is breaking and hopefully great sailing day ahead. We are 80 miles offshore as we pick up the SW winds and carry out some man overboard drills - don't panic friends and family, it only involves Bob the Fender going for a swim whilst we maneuver the boat back to rescue him - but it reminds us of the importance rehearsing for every situation before we head off-shore.

Goodbye for now

Sara (Crew member on board "Aurora")