Be The Jam

Position: Somali Basin

N 04°17.13'

E 056°17.72'

Heading 020 degrees. Moderate to strong wind from the West! Averaging about 8 knots most of the time.

It’s been a day of different winds, different tacks, excess bananas and chickens. The wind has sprung round to the West. For the first time we are on Reach. Since we started this journey over 5000 miles ago, we have had the wind up the arse all the way. Today for the first time we have it on our Port side. The boat sails much better this way. Not much sail up and she is zipping along at 6 knots. Bridget the onboard Aries Wind Vain is doing a great job too. The Aries has steered us almost constantly since we left the Seychelles . We are all getting a lot more sleep, which is good because when we hit the Gulf of Aden next week we won't get much.

1900 hrs

Over done it on the bananas today; if I ever see another banana I will cry. All our bananas have ripened at the same time. One went yellow and then in the blink of an eye; both huge branches (Over a 100 bananas a piece) ripened! I'm sure Rupert is looking a little pale today, so is Philip as it happens, maybe they have banana poisoning. What happens when you eat too many bananas? Is it anything like eggs? Shit! Comes to mind… The problem is that it’s not just a banana problem. I have just put three chickens in the oven. We bought four frozen chickens to eat at the beginning of our journey, then we catch this huge Yellow fin tuna and we have to eat that. The chickens were deep in the ice of the fridge, but today they started to appear through the ice, closer inspection found them all defrosted! So better to cook them and start eating them tonight, then more chicken for breakfast, then lunch, supper….I tell you I will have put weight on by the end of this trip, not lost it.