Our position at 10.00 (09.00 GMT)Monday 30th January
19 59S
001 10 WEST
We have 354 miles to go to St Helena and our 24 hour run from 10.00 yesterday to 10.00 this morning was an even worse 110 miles.

Our big news is that at 3.15 yesterday afternoon we crossed the Greenwich meridian line and are now in the western hemisphere. The last time we crossed from east to west was in 2008 on our way back to the Solent from The Netherlands. The other side of the world we crossed from west to east the first time in 2010 with the Blue Water rally and then crisscrossed it a couple of times in 2012, which was our last time in the wonderful country of Fiji. We’ll stay in the western hemisphere for a few years and won’t cross back to the eastern side until we are back in the English channel possibly heading to Norway….but knows when that will be.

East of the meridian

Seconds after crossing the meridian

Camomile crossing the line

The wind finally died yesterday at 5.30pm and we started motoring. Luckily the wind picked up again at 1.30 in the morning and Bill put the sails out and started sailing again. We passed our three quarters of the way last night.
This morning our speed is anything from 3 1/2 to 6kts as the wind comes and goes.

I gave the Indian takeaway a go last night with chicken in Massaman sauce with basmati rice and Bill ordered a nan bread – how lucky is he. I am too because I had a glass of wine with mine to celebrate the crossing of the meridian.

One of a number of fabulous sunsets

I drank it at dusk watching the sun go down and light up the sky with a magnificent golden hue. Later, as it was the dark moon night, the stars were simply stunning with planets and galaxies visible without the ambient light of the land. I know I don’t like passage making but we are privileged to see some of the most amazing sights.

Enjoy your Monday …. and yes he did have a shave he was looking too shaggy!

So the journey continues. These blogs go through to our facebook page but remember we can’t see facebook or your kind comments but thank you for them, I look forward to reading them when we arrive. If you wish to contact us on passage please use mdqf6 @ sailmail.com (but take the gaps out) I love to hear from you. xx