Tracks and traps over jizzery

I'm told that nuclear submarines can be tracked from space. Compared to a nuclear sub, one of the most disguised and surreptitious travellers ever devised, Berri's glowing, flashing green luminous trail across the North Atlantic last night must have looked like Son et Lumiere. It was awesome and enthralling – rather like the auroras we saw in the Baffin Sea and in it's small way just as spectacular.

Today, we are approaching the Tropic Seamount on the edge of the shelf – 4000 metres up to 500 or so in a vertical climb covering only about 5 miles in distance – breathtakingly steep if it were on land and nearly half as high as Everest. It's still 50 odd miles ahead but the sea has gone from deep almost milky blue to grey-green. Possibly unrelated. I've been squeezing it and it tastes just like the blue stuff!

A brief pass by a Storm Petrel – very brief glimpse, like the Madeiran but seemed to have longer thinner wings than in the book and also an all-white rump and tail. There isn't one like it in the book, so I've probably over jizzed. Zark!

Difficult to pick what to talk about – I'm sure that what we have for breakfast can be tedious all round – but perhaps interesting to note that we still have fresh tomatos, potatos, apples, turnips, onions, bacon and eggs. The bacon is packed 4 slices a time into sealed plastic sleeves. Even the very top quality bacon we bought sheds a lot of pus coloured water while awaiting its fate which is good because we don't have to boil it off before the pan will get hot enough to fry. The bacon and eggs and some spuds and apples from Falmouth, the rest from Lisbon. Lisbon tomatos – like no others – wonderful! If there's anything anyone would like us to write about, just holler and we'll see.

Interesting joust gybing the twin pole arrangement – difficult to explain but as a start, we have 24 bits of string coming back to the cockpit many of which are involved in a headsail gybeGybe - A sailing term for turning the boat so that the stern passes through the wind. Potentially dangerous if not controlled because the wind can fill an uncontrolled mainsail from the wrong side and crash it across the boat, possibly causing damage to the rig and anyone getting in the way. because we have one big and one small headsail and they must be changed from side to side. Many traps for young players in the process! For a start, if not kept bar taut, the halyard for the red sail gets wound up in the furlerA device fitted around the length of the forestay(s) of a sailing yacht that enables the crew to roll the headsail partially around the forestay and so make its effective area smaller (the same as reefing) or to roll it up completely (furling it). The sail would be furled when at anchor or otherwise not being used. There is a full description here . for the big one and ain't that a hassle to unwind…etc. We now have the red one on both kiteSailors’ slang for a spinnaker halyardsLines to hoist the sails Dave – to try to stabilise the head and stop it unwinding. Time will tell and it could be interesting getting it down.

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