Spook Trainor Posting

Our fourth day at sea and we are now in the South East Trades proper. The wind direction is pretty consistent, gentle but decent breezes by day so the we shift along at 6 to 9 knots. At night the wind picks up so that we can start surfing and klapping 15 knots plus. These SIMONIS 35s are so stable and dependable on a plane and Rian is an expert surfer!
We have just had lunch - heaps of rare to medium rare rump steak with onion, potato, butternut and Peroni! We don't have a fridge so we reason that we just have to eat it. Tonight we will have strips of the same with olives for sundowners. The sun is shining and we have the warmth we expect at 28 degrees 05' South; 9 degrees 30'East. Bathing over the stern with a buckets of ocean is a special pleasure!
Sundowners last was magical. The stratocumulus clouds that you get at these latitudes have odd forms rather like the sandstone formations you find in parts of the Cape Peninsula Mountain Chain - dragons and crocodiles and angels. Or the weird shapes of the Rohrich [?] ink blot tests!
Keeping the middle watch last night was still chilly. Middle watch is midnight to 04h00, die spookwag in Afrikaans. We wus Billy, Spook and Aaron. We had a merry time. The curl at the top of the spinnaker that tells you the sail is setting well was named Lippy. Now Lippy Lipschitz seemed a well-known name: not a man of the cloth, nor a man of the classics, maybe artist fits? And so, who did we find on the helm but Billy Bilschitz! [I promised to not tell Chris R at FBYC. I don't know if he reads blogs so please don't tell him!!!]. I say, "Hey Billy, you are really making this yacht move". Says Billy, "You can see it in the speedo"!!!
We watched the mast, spreaders, and masthead light swaying wildly across the Milky Way, taking on Orion with his sword and belt. By our estimation we won the duel - Orion was well and truly shafted! The other heavenly bodies in the play were the Seven Sisters. They were perfectly positioned ahead for Billy to steer by. This Billy is quite a guy! [You should have seen him at the start of this race - bang on the line at full tilt, close to the Navy's start ship and inhaling the gunsmoke like a real gunner][We in OUR DIANNE are very proud of our Billy!]
We are happy with our progress and glad that the BANJO and SWIMLION are behind us [at last report]. We have the Valdivia Banks in our sights and should get there tomorrow
We are sad about the boats that have had to retire. After so much planning, preparation and anticipation it must be a helluva blow! We are very glad that HAIKU is back in the race. Come on James and Derrick we need you to talk to on HF at 11h00 UTC - tomorrow!