Good morning again from the most stupendously beautiful setting. Today is about sun risers, sunsets and shooting stars. Growing up in South Africa gave me a great appreciation for the evening sky. In South Africa it feels bigger than anywhere else I’ve seen until… yip you got it. Here! My goodness it feels vast at night moving smoothly through the ocean with only the lights from the stars and moon. These last few nights have been picture perfect clear and I got plenty of chances to make a wish with stars shooting everywhere. Im pinching myself.

Its 5000m deep below us of beautiful blue water. So as has become tradition, yesterday during a sail change we doused all the sails and took a dip in the deepest part of our crossing. Big Alex, Arabella, Little Alex and I jumped in holding a rope and swam. Mommy took video evidence and Azania cheered on. Thankfully the water has climbed 7 degrees since we left Galapagos and a pleasant 26degrees.

This morning the sun is rising right behind me as it has been most mornings as we are heading due west at the moment. The wind is also off our stern so it’s perfect. The warm rays on your back and the only the slightest feeling of a breeze on your skin. Hard to explain but with full sails aloft it is pretty darned cool.

A group of very large Bottle Nose Dolphins came to visit. It was just me awake so I got to sit quietly by myself on the bow and truly enjoy their magnificence. And preying the autopilot doesn’t wobble which unfortunately has been lately. Not really sure the problem but she turns off unexpectedly which can be very concerning when under sail. So I will task Arabella and Delphine to do some hand steering today whilst I get to work on the watermaker. Yip, not good news. Unfortunately the booster pump which is the main pump feeding the water maker is leaking water like a sieve. I will need to take her apart and put new seals. I think the problem could be exasperated by the need to clean the filter which I will today. Normally we would only change filter monthly of actually every second month but Simon from Dragonfly said his were clogged full of plankton. This ocean is super rich. So today is a pump day.

Update on the Gennikar furler. She works great. I can’t wait to share pics when I arrive but my metal work held up and we have managed to fly her and put her away so all good.

Last night wasn’t a great night for sleeping so hopefully today I can get some shuteye before we start heading South West for the Marquesas.

1300nm to go.