Thai Chicken Curry

It is the third day since we left St.Helena.The first day was slow
going,motoring and waiting for the wind to kick in.Sailing long distance
one learns a lot of things.In this case,not to get disheartened when the
going is slow.Just grin and bare it.Yesterday,as our weather prediction
indicated,the wind came through and we didn't loose a second to get the
sails up and start making up for some lost time.As our secondary
headsails has been reduced to rags,we had to rig the mainsail and genoa
as a goosewing,giving the wind something to get into.Not as effective as
twin headsails,but miles better than just one headsail.

During the night the wind started shifting from SE to more ESE and we
were running a bit north.At about ten this morning the wind shifted
sufficiently for us to go on a broadreach.Also a difficult angle to sail
on as the swell is coming in at an angle,causing us to slip down the
face of the swell at times and throwing us around a bit.Nothing
vicious,and with gybe preventers not too stressful on the rigging as
well.The wind is between 12 and 15 kts.Main second reef with full
genoa.A bit conservative but our speed is above our 5 kts
average,sometimes even touching 7 kts.The motion is much gentler this
way.Once we get on to a beam reach,things will change again.Speed will
then give us a better motion as we are then actually sailing,and not
being pushed by the wind.

On the menu tonight is Thai Chicken Curry with spiced rice.Easy with
Denny readymixed sauce.Last night we had rump steak with spuds.Mayonaise
and a few other little tricks makes spudds an awesome experience.It was
Pieter's turn to prepare supper and not having a pan,yes,we lost it in
Cape Town already,I recommended we bake the rump steak in our baking
pan.It came out absolutely deliciously succilently soft.We have a pan
somewhere on board inbetween the charter cutlery,but we seem to manage
fine without a pan.Brad scooped some water in Elliot Basin in Cape Town
and came up with just the handle in his hand.I always buy fairly good
stainless pots and pans,even though we use it only for the delivery and
then leave it behind.No pan,no problem.The weather is positively
starting to get hot,bordering on 29*C.

Last night saw a satelite moving through the sky,quite amazing,gazing at
the stars and see one star just moving through the sky at speed.I have a
program,Astro Viewer and have a lot of fun with it.You type in your
position,date and time and voila,you have all the planets and other
heavenly bodies visible from where you are on your computer
screen.Pleiades,a cluster close to Orion,is probably my favourite sight
at night,a right little jewel in the sky.The Greek mythology around this
cluster is rich with imagination.More about that some other time.The
stories these people saw in the sky is sometimes absurd,sometimes
comical,but always beautiful.Also interesting that the Celt mythology
also have it's roots in the Grecian/Roman times.

If all goes according to plan,we will be sailing past Ascension Island
on Saturday.This weekend is also the Mykonos Regatta in Cape Town and we
wish all the participants a really excellent time.Our position @ PM
03:00 UTC 11*42'S/10*17'W.Distance to Greece about 5150nm.

Wishing you pleasant day or night.

Paul