09-Nov-2008 Noon Update

Noon Position
North Atlantic Ocean
32'30.4N/19'03.8W

• 130 nm last 24hrs!!
  
• 303 nm from Tangier
  
• 266 nm to Canary Islands
  
• Winds NE 15-20 knots
  
• Seas NE 6-8 ft
  
• 1 fish caught/lost
  

'ALL HAIL BIG POLE' . Thanks to Sandpiper's beefy jib pole that we traded a case of beer for back in Australia. It has been poled out the last 24 hours and a 15-20 knot tailwind we have made one of our best 24-hours runs. Last time we made this many miles in 24 hours was 28-Feb-2008 on our transit across the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka to the Maldives. Just as forecasted, the winds yesterday started increasing from the NE, right behind Sandpiper's stern gusting up to 25 knots at times. This gave us 6-7 knots average and is just what the 'Piper likes. With the swells coming straight behind us, and the main and jib being out wing-on-wing, it is a bit rolly. But we are enjoying the speed.

Still lots of ships heading N/S all around us. And small Moroccan long-line fishing boats that for some reason we only seem to see at night. All day yesterday we kept passing long-line fishing markers, but never saw any boats. Then at 11pm I hear a motor right off our side and see a 20 foot open boat powered by a single outboard go buzzing by 50 feet away down our port side. I never saw them until then as they had no lights on their boat. But as they passed they flashed us with a flashlight, so I flashed them back with ours. They were a couple hundred yards from one end of one of their long lines and think they were just zipping by us to say hello. I freaked for a second seeing 2 guys in a boat right next to us in the middle of the night. But we were only 30 miles offshore with a strong wind/sea pumping. We are always amazed when off 3rd world countries how far offshore their fishermen go out in very small boats only powered by a small outboard, I can only imagine how many of them never make it back.

We did hook a fish today. Once we had it along side it spit out the hook. Even with out fish books we never did figure out what it was. It had a body like a tuna, but was kind of brown in color. Any suggestions??

Winds are predicted to hold for the next 24 hours then start lighting up tomorrow afternoon.

More in 24!!
Tom and Amy