What a difference a day makes; yesterday's tranquil sailing, overnight changed into a tiring beat into a sloppy sea. A couple of times Kika has flown off a wave causing a heart-stopping crash as the briefly airborne boat fails to defy gravity. One such moment seems to have caused the toilet lid to sheer off its plastic mounting studs. Normally a loose toilet lid wouldn't cause any major distress, but on this particular design the lid seals and is integral to the flushing mechanism. Until the wind calms down and I have a chance make good a repair with some trusty epoxy resin I guess it's going to be "bucket it and chuck it".
I'm still slowly converging with the others - I'm 50 miles closer to the waypoint than the fleet, though still over 100 miles from the closest boat.
Having quickly consumed all the pineapples I set sail with, I've been eagerly waiting for my mangoes to ripen and today I could wait no longer. What a treat, a perfect juicy tasty mango - now the race is on the eat the rest before they over-ripen.
On the fishing front it's been a day of much excitement. The first bite occurred soon after dawn just as I started downloading my email and discovered I had bumper inbox - thanks to all those who have written. I thought the fish could wait while I fussed over the slow connection, but by the time I'd finished downloading, the line was slack. With the second bite I must have hooked a monster; all the line raced out before I could make it to the reel and took the lure with it. Third time lucky. I'd just started giving my position on the evening radio net, when the line started whizzing out. Determined to not miss this time, I excused myself and landed a nice fat tuna, making it back to the radio in time to hear the weather and wind speculation.
Overall the day has passed surprisingly quickly, I guess when everything takes twice as long to do, time vanishes twice as fast.
Position @ 12:00 (GMT+5), 18/02/2009: N9deg 55' E063deg33'
Distance to Gulf of Aden: 432
Engine Hours: 0
Daily run: 113
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