Christmas Day

Well, Christmas day arrived, with many squalls, which meant that both of us were drenched twice over before daylight. With all the cloud we sadly missed seeing Santa fly over head, and unfortunately he didn't feel the need to stop by ...

When morning came we opened our gifts and cards. I had a Welsh radio interview to distract me for a while. We then had numerous phone calls with family and friends, with floods of tears to follow.

Herdip drew a Christmas tree, holly and snowman in the cabin to get us in the mood!

Unexpectedly we then had a call from Kilcullen - support vessel - they were on their way to see us and wanted our position.Unfortunately our tracking beacon hadn't been working since 6am!! That would mean that our ever growing "fan-club" would not be able to follow the blue dot move across the PC, and for us, that they wouldn't be able to track us easily in the case of an emergency.

So wearing our musto deck shoes, bikinis, Christmas hats (thanks Bindi)and snowmen an Christmas tree earrings (thanks Gles) we were ready and excited for our Christmas visitors.

When you've been devoid of seeing other people for over 3 weeks, the excitement of having visitors is phenomenal! As the swells and waves were big and choppy, they had some difficulty finding us, and as our VHF radio didn't seem to be picking up, it was very frustrating seeing the sail, and not being able to shout "WE'RE OVER HERE"!

Christmas wishes etc and photos done it was down to the task of fixing the beacon which included getting into the cabin for clear instructions over radio ... out on to deck to track leads ... back in to cabin for radio check ... back on deck tolook under gunell ... then battery ... back into cabin to open electrics ... radio for info ... change fuse ... back to deckto point under binoculars that yes we were talking about the same piece of equipment (!!!!) ... and then finally a radiocheck to confirm that it was working!! (All this while trying to keep Dream Maker on the right bearing to avoid beinghit sideways on by the ever increasing waves!) Hooray - blue dot moving restored!

And as Kilcullen waved off into the distance, all smiles with their binoculars and extra zoom cameras we realised that maybe our outfits were not the most appropriate for the job at hand with 3 men (spending Christmas alone on a boat) starring at you!! Ah well, at least most of the day had now flown by without leaving too much time to gather thought!

So the rest of the day was spent rowing & resting as per usual, before we treated ourselves to tea and one of M&Ss finest Christmas cake. I exchanged my icing for Herdip's marzipan, the moon was beautiful and bright, and she even let me sing a few Christmas carols.I was full of joyous Christmas spirit as the day came to an end, as I sat on deck, thinking of my warm snug sleeping bag, waiting for a late running Herdip to take over rowing! I prided myself in my good will spirit for not hurrying her along (as usual) ... when ... SPLASH ... a massive wave came from no where and soaked me right through... HERDIP!!!

Today however our minds were fixed purely on the rowing, and we were getting very frustrated by our slow progress over the last 36 - 48 hours. Easterly winds had been stopping our efforts to get south to 20 degrees, and despite good swells we were just not going over 2 knots. Many people message us telling us to check our hull is clean, but as the swell had been, ad still was choppy, neither of us fancied a dip down under to check! frustration meant I had to bite the bullet and go for it though! Armed with mask, snorkel and scraper I looked like a true professional! I would have taken a photo but I was otherwise naked, which kind of distracted from the overall look! The bottom of the boat was COVERED in barnacles! little monster legs sticking out everywhere! So I scraped, and scraped, only stopping now and again to cough my lungs out when I swallowed a gallon of sea water! And whether it is psychological or not, we're certainly moving faster and easier now!

Following a "team talk" we also decided to abandon our previously set 20N30W way point, try to make the most of these easterly and head straight for Antigua!!!! 1886 miles to go!!!!!!!!! So I better get rowing ...

Cheers