From mid Atlantic

We are at the end of our 1st week and in 7 days we have covered 1155 miles of our 2600 mile passage. We've had F4-6 winds and 3/4m waves and made great speed; Irony is taking it in her stride. Temp in low 20s but feels colder. The first 2/3 days we were both feeling queasy, not actually sick but I really wanted to end it all! That's gone now and we are acclimatised to the constant movement and routine of watches. It's strange never to get more than 3 hours sleep at a time and not be able to get into bed together! Nic covers 10pm-1am and 4am-7am, I do 1am-4am and 7am-10am (crossed a couple of time zones but sticking to GMT). We also try to grab a couple of extra hours during the day. Having a shower is quite a challenge when being thrown around. The advance cooking I did has kept things easy in the galley. We still are enjoying lots of Gambian fresh fruit and veg.

We've been in radio contact with the Dutch couple we met in Gambia, they are 1000 miles south of us heading for Brazil, motoring for 5 days in the doldrums and extreme heat! Every evening at 8pm we radio "Herb", an amazing guy in California who's been helping yachts with their Atlantic crossings for decades, all for free. We give him our position and weather conditions and he tells us what's ahead and can warn of possible storms and advise on avoiding them. Incredible we can be in contact with land all the way out here.

We've had a few dramas...the vang (connects boom to mast)broke off the mizzen mast. Nic had to drill out the old rivets and re-rivet it on again. I've had to stitch up the bimini which was coming apart; it's taking a few waves over the top! Yesterday am, Nic woke me up from my precious 3 hrs because the autopilot had stopped working. I had to manually steer while he replaced the fuse which had blown after a couple of big waves hit us. We're relieved it was nothing more serious and we're not faced with being at the helm day and night for the rest of the passage; the autopilot gives us a lot of freedom. Other than that our greatest hazard seems to be flying fish which are constantly bombarding the windows, decks and cockpit.

We are now making for St Lucia rather than Martinique. We need some parts and there's a duty-free chandlery there, Martinique is euro zone and will be expensive for us. The call of those pina coladas on a palm-fringed beach is getting stronger.

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Departure

They kindly gave us another 28 day visa on Thursday, it's tempting to head back upriver but the Caribbean is calling now! Now planning to leave tomorrow or Monday. Will post our position each day on www.yachtplot.com (login with boatname: Irony and password: onboard).

Photos

• http://picasaweb.google.com/Ironylondon/GambiaHighlights

Back in Lamin

We are now back at Lamin Lodge trying to get ourselves organised before we sadly need to leave on Friday (our 28 day visa has run out too quickly!) In addition to provisioning for our Atlantic crossing we have to refuel (600 litres by jerry can) and fill up with water (in jerry cans by donkey cart from the standpipe in the village). Getting money to pay for it all is a challenge - it is only possible to get 2000 dalasi or about 60 pounds out of the bank at one go, so we have to keep feeding the card in to get bricks of money. The largest note is only 100 dalasi and fuel is 32 dalasi/litre!

Up the river

We haven't had any internet available since we left Lamin Lodge. We have been having the most amazing time along the river - only one more croc but millions of monkeys and baboons, chimps, hippos, an enormous variety of the most spectacular birds and, unfortunately, quite a selection of insects. We are feeling very in touch with nature, both sights and sounds. More detail and pictures to follow.

Crocs and we don't mean the shoes!

We saw our first crocodile today, basking on a mudflat in the the sun up Mandori Creek, where we are anchored for the night - no swimming planned! Although the river is still over a mile wide here, the creek is narrow. Once we were over the sand bar at the entrance it is surprisingly deep quite far up, fortunate as it is uncharted. We set out quite early this morning to take advantage of the tides and are now about halfway up to Georgetown, our final destination. It was only 14 degrees at 0730 this morning but 30 degrees this afternoon with less than 20% humidity, necessitating quite a wardrobe change during the day. There have been hardly any other boats in evidence and virtually no sign of human development of any kind; lots more dolphins though. The quiet tonight is incredible, only punctuated by bird and insect sounds and the odd fish breaking the surface of the water, it's magical. We are going a short distance tomorrow over to Tendeba where there is a camp where they serve bush pig!

On our way up the river

We left this morning and started our journey up the river, accompanied by dolphins around James Island (a fortress used as a slave collection area and fought over by the British, French and Dutch from 1650 until it was abandoned in 1829). We are anchored at Bintang Bolon, a creek about 25 miles from Banjul - just us and the local wildlife - SO quiet, it's wonderful.

We had an interesting time at Lamin Lodge. On Saturday the President was visiting the local village and we went to see the celebrations. It was an incredible scene - everyone dressed up, music, lots of people in green batik costumes and millions of kids. The kids latched onto us, fascinated by the camera. They weren't a nuisance, just very open, friendly and chatty. Provisioning is a challenge, there's hardly anything available to buy. We had to get the local lads, Landa and Lennox, to drive us to a nearby farmer's market to stock up on fruit and vegetables for our trip. We heard from other boats that there's little to buy up the river.