# “are we nearly there [yet]?”s: 1
# crew swims in the middle of the Atlantic: 1
Becalmed for 24 hours and motoring for most of that, we took time out to have a quick dip in the biggest swimming pool going. Deep blue 5000 metres down.
No big fish to see, although the skipper was ordered out on recon to check for who knows what before the rest of the crew jumped off. Wonderful way to cool off and make the most of the all too clement conditions. # whales seen: 0
Still no whales although we saw a couple of whale spouts 50m off our port beam a couple of days back.
Visits from seabirds have been a constant throughout the passage – there must be fish out there somewhere …. # fish caught: (still) 0.
Fishing rod didn’t even get an outing yesterday.
The boat continues to reap a nightly harvest of flying fish with the occasional squid. # vessels within AIS range: 3 (yesterday)
After a close encounter with some friends we originally met in Portugal right in the middle of the Atlantic – we just happened to be crossing through the same patch of ocean at the same time, yesterday saw one classic sailing vessel and two commercial sister ships within AIS range at the same time – something we’ve not seen for over a week! One of these commercial vessels, Manatee, took the time to call us on the VHF.
They asked if everything was OK, if they could do anything for us, and offered to be of assistance if we were to need anything.
The oceans can appear lonely and forbidding, so we were buoyed by such a warm and kindly contact from a stranger. # Atlantic squalls: 2
More on this later, but they were quite something to experience at the helm.