Atlantic Crossing Day 16

At 1630 UTC on Jan 25, 2017 our position was 15.33.94N, 45.23.92W.

We continue to sail along in comfortable seas and winds! We have pulled the spinnaker down the last two nights to be cautious with squalls. It paid off the first night when Sandra experienced a brief squall, but last night we just bobbed along at a painful 3 knots most of the night with no visits from squalls. Never thought I would say that we were hoping for one just to briefly see some decent boat speed!!! First thing in the morning the spinnaker was back up doing its thing beautifully as usual. The fix for the broken block is still holding well so let's hope it can hold on for another week or so.

We have not been fishing since we caught the tuna as we just didn't have any more freezer space. Jeff gave us a bit of a nudge yesterday wondering when we might cast the line in again. So this morning we did just that! I put in a request for Jeff to catch us a dorado (aka:mahi mahi). And boy did he deliver!! Within an hour we had the reel spinning and Jeff pulled in a beautiful 5kg (nearly a meter long) dorado. We are looking forward to dinner tonight!!!

On a completely unrelated note and really one that only Iris's grandparents might be interested in, Iris has her first loose tooth!!! It is one of her bottom front teeth. It will be the first time the tooth fairy will have to make a visit to Maple. Perhaps it will fall out in Barbados where big sister, Ella, likes to retell her story of losing one of her teeth when we last visited Barbados nearly four years ago.

The Aussies on board |(Jeff and Sandra) would like to wish everyone back in Australia a very happy Australia Day (26th). We hope that the barbie is fired up and the beers are flowing and those that are still working can enjoy a long weekend!!

So that is the extent of the excitement here on Maple! Just enjoying life, contained on an 11.5m x 6m floating platform!

Love to all from,

Janet for
The Maple Crew

PS: Ok this is starting to become a habit. As I finished writing this email we were visited by a pod of whales!!! We must be the luckiest sailors out there. I can't say for sure how many whales there were but I believe it was at least four or five of them. Ella was on watch and gave the shout out when she spotted one. Then the first close encounter was right beside the boat when I believe a mama and her calf surfaced together to scrutinize Maple. After this we had front row seats to FOUR full breeches off our port quarter! Unbelievable!!! I can't believe how fortunate we have been with whales visiting us, along with all the other wildlife. What an amazing trip this has been!