Richard Hewson

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> We are having a fantastic run across the Atlantic from Mindelo to Bequae. We are averaging 7kts, making 160-170nm per day. This morning we shook out the reef, and now we have perfect sailing conditions of 18kts from the ENE with the Yankee poled out. Its tempting to set a spinnaker, however even without more sail we are still crusing at 6-7 kts. >
> Last night we passed a large Atlantic fishing vessel accompanied by a number of smaller vessels. None of the vessels showed up on AIS, hinting there was something fishy going on as they did not want to be spotted! >
> This morning our speed dropped down to 5.5kts, perfect fishing speed, and we landed two of our own fish, a Large Mahi Mahi, from Max’s head to his knees. Then a smaller Mahi Mahi that put up a good fight. A third large Mahi we hooked and got close to the boat before he escaped. Our speed then increased to 7 kts so the rod was put away. Still more than enough fish for dinner and a good portion for the freezer. >
> Radio reception on the SSB has not been good the last few days, we will soon be changing over to the American base stations. Do not be concerned if you do not get a position or blog report for a few days, as we may loose signal. The primary issue is I need to download (via radio) updated propogation schedules for winlink base stations. This s quite a large file (for the radio) and the last few attempts to download have failed. Once I manage to download this we should have a better reception for blogs etc. >