Fair winds and following seas, that's what it's all meant to be
about.
Also to go along with that, clear skies, lots of fish on the meat
line, no squalls, warm days etc....
Ok so 5 out of 6 is pretty good, the last two days / nights have
been close to spot on (except the fish). After the run of squalls
we
had the other night which was attributable to a trough running
through the area we have had great conditions. We can't seem to find
this west setting current that everyone talks about? Either can
"Reality", another boat about 150 miles NE of us, it's a bugger as
we were hoping to hook into this for a free nudge along.
VERY clear nights, LOTS of stars, it looks fantastic, coupled with
no moon and the sky looks breathtaking, makes you feel very small
and irrelevant with all that up there.
At night you can also see the phosphorescence in the water, there is
a LOT of it here, much more that we ever noticed in the Pacific or
Caribbean. Phosphorescence, not sure exactly what it is, but when
you disturb the water all these small "critters" glow green, so what
you have is a green trail behind the boat extending for 30-40 feet,
it's really cool, if you are lucky enough to see any dolphins at
night they leave a green "tube" in the water as they swim around.
It's very captivating you can just stare at it for ages! - Well
Jason can. (simple things amuse simple minds!)
The wind has been sitting on the 20 knot line for a few days now and
looks like it will drop down to 15 over the next few days. The
forecast for the next week or so looks like we will have trade wind
conditions right into Saint Marteen - Fantastic!!
Currently we have the wind close to dead behind us and we are
"tacking" down wind - running back and forth across the wind just
enough to keep the breeze at a nice angle to put some sideways
pressure on the boat and give us a bit more of a nudge along, so it
looks like a great day for sailing.
Listing into some of the radio nets that are on as we cross the
"pond" (as the poms like to put it) we heard that there are a
few more boats in trouble, one a small 26 ft Catamaran with two on
board
put a mayday call out yesterday - not sure what the problem is but
with a mayday you would assume that it's not good news. Last we
heard there was a boat about 18 hours away from them. They were
making there
way to help out. Another boat has some rudder problems - not sure if
it is a show stopper. The last was a boat with a woman on board who
has been chronically sick, vomiting for the last 14 days! - they
left 14 days
ago!. they were looking for medical help as they have at least
another 6 days before they get in. Lets hope everything works out ok
for everyone.
So far we have been going ok, bit of chafe on the spinnaker halyard,
and an annoying hum coming from the rudder at certain speeds. As
Jason can't stand creaks, rattles etc.. this is driving him crazy.
Jo just says "what hum? oh that...."
Current position: 19-40.7N, 35-57.5W COG 280M. Last 24 run 168nm
(day 7) and 172nm day 8.
It's starting to get busy out here as we are starting to catch up
to some of the ARC boats. There were 255 boats which departed from
Las
Palmas 6 days before us, some of the fast ones have already arrived
into St Lucia!
Also passed another boat today about 3 miles off, this one is
heading to Martinique also in the Caribbean.
Nothing yet on the fishing line so have changed lures - debating
whether to put the kite up or not - if we do, it's likely we won't
catch any fish, but the trade off will be another 2 knots approx
boat speed....ahhh decisions!
Til next Time,
J&J
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