Almost immediately after finishing that last post the wind shifted and wing and wing would no longer work. The wind shifted to an uncooperative angle making it too sharp for wing and wing but not sharp enough for a broad reach. We furled the now useless head sail and when the wind dropped to 6 knots we had no choice but to start up the engine again. We weren’t thrilled about that development but when we downloaded a new GRIB file from McBoob it lifted our spirits. If the forecast is correct we will have 15 knots by Thursday afternoon and 20 by Friday. We’ve been enjoying our pleasure cruise but are both ready for some proper trade winds and some proper mileage.

With all these 110 mile days we might as well be in a mono-hull!

We decided the good news called for a celebration so we made reservations at the most exclusive restaurant within a thousand miles. Worried that we wouldn’t get a table on such short notice we resorted to name dropping. I hate to do that but what’s the point of owning the place if you can’t get a little special treatment now and again right? Their veranda is celebrated for its immaculate and unobstructed sunset views so we reserved a table and timed our arrival to take full advantage. Although seafood is the specialty of the house and the Dorado is in season they were all sold out so we opted for the sweet and sour chicken over coconut rice. Service was good, food was excellent and the view? Unbeatable.

Yesterday I finally rigged up a couple of hand lines. I gave away my rod and reel in Turkey in favour of a simplistic yet effective hand line set-up. I haven’t really done any serious fishing since Australia so this turned out to be quite a project. Getting the lines, shock cords, leaders and lures organized took a few hours but before dinner I had two lines out each with three pink squid lures. So far we’ve caught nothing but sea grass but once the wind sets in we should be moving along a little quicker, which all of our favourite predators seem to like.

Our latest estimate has us arriving on January 22nd; 3 days after my passport expires. Arriving in a country with an expired passport will be a new experience for me. Hopefully I won’t end up like that guy Tom Hanks played in the movie who had to live in the airport because he wasn’t officially allowed to arrive or leave. We’ve got some potential visitors lined up which is good because if I end up in jail at least there will be someone to help Jaime sail the boat home. I’ve advised the Canadian Embassy in Barbados of the situation and asked for their advice but haven’t heard anything yet. I’m sure this isn’t the first time it’s happened so am hoping they can issue some temporary permit to get me in while I sort out a new passport.

We haven’t seen another boat for a week or so, not even an AIS hit. Two nights ago at 3AM I was sleeping and Jaime was on watch. All of a sudden the VHF starts blaring Taylor Swift at her. Apparently this is some kind of American Country pop princess crap. The song was Romeo and Juliet and it was accompanied by a bunch of indecipherable French gibberish. It’s a strange ocean.

Even more alarming than ghostly nocturnal broadcasts of shitty country-pop was the visit we received from the sinister hooded reaper of flying fish, also known as death. Jaime has harboured an irrational fear of flying fish for quite some time now so imagine how scary it must have been for her to find the scaled harvester of little fishy souls in our cockpit. I consider it a good omen. If we have the fish reaper in our cockpit it can only mean that we are about to catch a fish right? Fortunately we did manage to get a couple of pictures. This is pretty scary stuff so viewer’s discretion is advised. I’ll try to post them here later, but for now go to HYPERLINK “http://www.facebook.com/theslapdash” www.facebook.com/theslapdash to check them out.

Here’s a disgusting phenomenon that you would only know about if you have taken part on a long ocean passage on a small boat. After about ten days at sea something strange happens; your feet shed dead skin like a leprous snake. There’s no warning either. It’s like a bunch of bananas or avocados that all ripen on exactly the same day. I’m not sure if it’s the lack of walking, the salt water or what, but one day everything is normal and the next, bang, your foot skin is sloughing off. As gross as this sounds there is an upshot. You get them wet, and give them a scrub with a towel or something and afterwards your feet are brand new. I’m sure that this is some kind of spa service that people pay big bucks for at home. All we had to do to get the exact same result for free was sell everything we owned to buy a boat and spend 5 years at sea… ha ha, in your face 30 dollar spa treatment!

Are we there yet, are we there yet, are we there yet?

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