And here's another one

We received two emails from Sam at 2120 today. Obviously they go into an SSB stasis somewhere:

Just sea (one bird) no fish (although we do have a line out but Joan has sworn to have nothing to do with whatever we catch), no tonnes of crude oil, no shortened ships in fact the Atlantic equivalent of the Aussie GBA. Very hot and sticky, winds very light, struggling to keep up to 5.5 knots. Hope for more breeze later.

Many boats reporting damage, broken booms, spin poles, sails, rudders etc. A 50ft Bruce Roberts [steel yacht] has been abandoned after the rig became unstable and the engine packed up. All crew rescued by cargo ship and taken to Gib. One of the boats that diverted to the Cape Verdes with a medical probem has retired after finding an unspecified fault on the boat.

We now have less than 1000 miles to go and St Lucia is on the same plotter page as our current position, which is a bit too south at the moment, but we can correct later if the wind plays ball. If propagation is good and the sunspots have healed maybe Uncle Herb can give us joy this evening.

Am juggling MP3s on the night watch. Some of Nick's stuff is really good. Listened to a lot of Pink last night plus Gabrielle and Cilmi. I shall be so cool when I get back!

Am still not used to broken sleeps. I expect that when I do get back, I'll still rise at 3am and dismantle the shower head before going back to bed at 6am. I think it's a silly place to put a shower control.

The sea has calmed down a lot and is a fabulous colour, very tempting, but I'm not convinced about the MOB capability on board.