Operation beard trim is go go go!!! Today I managed to get the beard trimmed finally. I thought I'd show you all a before photo. An after photo will be in the next blog. I think you will be pleasantly surprised how it came out considering I only had a pair of kitchen scissors at my disposable for the job. It does feel a lot better now so all is good.

Something else happened today which left me rather frustrated. I thought it was time to try out the "Ketch's Shower Gadget" so I set about getting it filled up with water. It took 20 liters so it was quite heavy. When I lifted it up to hang on the pole it just bent in half causing the solar shower to fall off into the water and float away. I tried but I couldn't get to it in time. I was close to jumping in to fetch it but it was gone floating away into the distance. Also it's pretty suicidal to just jump off the boat. You can't swim to the side if something goes wrong out here. Sadly the "Ketch's Shower Gadget" may never make full production, oh well the idea was good.

I managed to get a few other jobs done on the boat today as well which was useful. The camera mount that I broke early on the trip is now safely back in place. It was also another seriously hot day today. Only a little bit of breeze around to help keep cool.

Thanks to everyone for all the txt messages.

Captain Ketch

Progress has slowed slightly today the wind is blowing up from the south a little which slowed me down. This afternoon a cargo ship passed me around five miles north. It was heading to Panama. Crazy to think it will be there in a few days and I've still got around 40 days left to make Antigua. I was left a present today, not sure how it got there but it did somehow. A dead fish was sat on the side of the boat. Not a particularly big fish though.

I'm told that the weather is going to go light over the next few days so that should allow me to get operation beard trim under way.

I'm finding the rationing of food quite difficult at the moment as it's leaving me hungry a lot of the time. Time is going quick though so it won't be for too long. Roll on Antigua where my burger and chips await!

Monday tomorrow so the start of another week.

Captain Ketch

Since the last blog update I've covered over 100 miles so now have less than 1400 to go. Hopefully I can continue this pace! Now I've been out here over 60 days I need to look at doing a few jobs on board as well as rowing. So today I thought I try and trim the beard which some people pointed out is getting rather wild. I armed myself with a pair of scissors and went to work. A few seconds later I gave up as I was clearly going to cut my face off! Big lesson today, never try and cut beard with scissors in the cabin when boat is being thrown about all over the place. Operation beard trim will have to be postponed until conditions are a little more stable. Another job that needs to be done is to clean the bottom of the boat. Again this will have to wait until the seas are a little calmer.

Haven't had any luck on the fishing front yet, although I haven't really persevered with it. My main objective while the weather is good is to cover as many miles as possible.

Hope everyone has a good weekend. I shall mainly be rowing!

Also thank you to the people that have donated.

Captain K