Setting off across the drink!

Atlantic Crossing.
27th December. The day after boxing day is the day we finally leave. I am not as nervous as I thought I would be and Sym is mad for it. We cannot wait to get to Antigua, it feels like we have been planning this forever. Sym plots out course before we leave and the total mileage is 2115 miles. Wow, that’s our longest trip ever by far. We check the weather, the wind is great but there is a massive storm up north which is sending down five metre swells which im not to happy about, but still we cant wait forever.
We clear the Islands of the Cape Verdes in a few hours and get our first sighting of Simon on Doris. The wind is all over the place and the seas are a bit swelly, but its not too long after that they settle down and the down wind sailing begins. The weather is really cloudy though. By nightfall we catch Doris up. Making really good speed at about 7.5 knots which is wicked. A few hours after the sun goes down the wind drops off below 10 knots and the annoying sound of the sails starts slamming. It is enough to drive you so insane there were times i thought about lobbing myself in the water. Throughout the night we sail really slow with hardly any wind at about 3.5 to 4 knots, Sym catches 2 really bizarre scary looking fish which are black with big teeth like they just stepped out of a horror movie, he decides they don’t look to appetizing so hes throws them back in. Very poor sleeping going on, which is always the same for us on the first night, it takes some time to get in to a routine.
Anyways first day all well and good and make about 135 nm.
Day Two.
Far nicer weather today, few clouds in the sky and the sun in shining. The sea state has calmed down so its really quite flat and the wind had picked up to about 14 knots so we are making good speed. We can still see Doris in the distance and have been chatting on VHF. Today is wicked, we go up the front of the boat strip off and have a shower which was lush. Then I catch my first baby Mahi - Mahi , so I fillet it which im so chuffed about, thinking about having a beautiful dinner. Then Sym catches one - a 5 kg one, its absolutely massive.(Edwardo would be really impressed) It takes my ages to fillet. So now I think we have a few months supply of beautiful fish on board.
That’s it for today cos this staring at the computer screen is starting to make me feel queasy. It takes me a few days to get into the swing of things!