By Brian Bell 

We had our main meal in the evening, well into the dark as the passage progressed. Nick usually cooked the meal of meat, potatoes and veg, and plenty of it, and we usually had a glass of wine. Mike D also did quite a lot of cooking, but Michael and I escaped with just a couple of sessions each! The expert cooking was very much appreciated. Lunch was usually a light cold meal, e.g. fresh salad and cold or tinned meat and a tinned drink. People got their own breakfast, if they wanted any. We had fresh meat on board but it had to be used up in the first 10 days because we couldn't afford the current to keep the fridge going adequately.

Maintenance was continuous, a pipe connection on the underfloor diesel tanks started to leak into the bilge (a second hose clip fixed it, but the bilge had to be washed out), and the engine alternator was changed because we thought it wasn't working properly. However, we changed it back again several days later because the new one didn't give enough output (we couldn't make it sense the battery voltage and there was a significant voltage drop through the charge-splitting diodes). We had to keep a close watch for wear on the sails and ropes, and more and more sticky tape appeared on various projections and on the rails to prevent chafe.

A piece of good news came over the SSB radio on 29th (21 deg 46'N, 29 deg 29'W)- two people we knew on yacht Shimshal, Sally and Simon, told us they had got engaged the previous day!

The cycle of light winds and no wind continued, sometimes we would have twin headsails up, sometimes we would have the mainsail up as we would be reaching, sometimes we would be becalmed, and sometimes we would be motoring. And the ARC forecast was still promising NE trade winds in a few days. On 2nd December (20 deg 44'N, 35 deg 7'W) we had a display of sheet lightning at about 0100 UTC when we were becalmed in the dark. The daytime was no better and we motored a lot, but we stopped the engine at 1600 because we were on net controller duty and the engine causes interference. After the roll call, there was still no wind so we jumped over the side for a swim. As we were drying off in the sun, and still drifting, another yacht appeared, also motoring. We called it on the VHF radio, and it was Sitoa, an American ARC yacht we knew well (Curt and Eva also did radio net controller duty in our group). They came very close and threw us some "dolphin fish" (dorado) which they had caught earlier. We had it for dinner later, it was lovely. And we continued to motor, with no wind.

And then, at 0020 next morning, the engine died - again. No oil in the bilge this time, but there didn't appear to be any fuel getting to the lift pump and I noticed what appeared to be an air bubble in the water separator filter bowl. Disconnecting the fuel pipe from the tank showed there was a fuel blockage in the fuel tank outlet and poking a wire through the tap allowed intermittent fuel flow, but we couldn't keep it clear. Much discussion about what to do - Sod's Law, we had just pumped fuel from the under-floor tanks into the main tank which was now full with 30 gallons. In the end we decided on a finger-in-the-dyke approach. I just unscrewed the tap in the hope that the obstruction would flow out into a container and put my finger over the hole. The tap came off and out came a 3 inch long sliver of silicone rubber - perfectly blocking the tap. I was able to remove it and replace the tap and only lost about 2 litres of fuel. This was obviously what had caused the engine to stop the first time as well. The worrying aspect was that we had no idea where the silicone rubber had come from, and if there was more in the tank. The tank was brand new last winter and no silicone rubber like the sliver was used in the under-floor tanks. So, after more bilge cleaning, we continued sailing as we had been doing while the blockage was being cleared - rocketing along at 3 knots.

Around this time, Nick decided that we would never eat all the bananas we had on board and so decided that he and Michael would make banana wine. This meant mushing up all the bananas, adding some yeast and leaving the vile-looking mixture to ferment for several weeks in the hope that it would be ready to celebrate the Millennium!

Saturday 4 December, 0900 UTC, crossed 38 degrees west - half way by longtitude! Only another 1360 miles to go. Not much celebration - half the crew were fast asleep.

The wind was still light at the end of the first week in December but we were starting to get rain squalls - very heavy rain with sudden strong winds, up to 25 knots. There was a very long weather front extending from near the UK (where a deep depression was causing trouble) right down to our area (19 deg N, 40 deg W). The squalls were unpleasant but at least the wind for the next few days kept us going at a reasonable speed, covering 110 to 150 miles a day (and the windmill was producing a couple of amps occasionally!). The log recorded a maximum speed of 8.8 knots - we're not sure when it happened but it was probably in a squall and when we surfed down a wave.

7th December, 1100 UTC, (17 deg 53'N, 44 deg 5'W) only 1000 miles to go according to the GPS, but the wind appeared to be dropping. We had been heading south west to try to avoid a depression forecast to appear ahead of us, but we knew we would not be able to achieve this. Sure enough, next day, lots of rain and more squalls, including one (at midnight, of course) which knocked the boat far over and right round, and we had to start the engine to get back on course as the jib had backed. Michael went forward in the strong wind and reefed the mainsail. It was a little exciting for a while.

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