PG Roshni - 30/11 1230 FINISH

Evening all ! Tardy I have been eh! The finish and joy of beers after 12 days (that’s nearly 2 weeks of no alcohol for those who really thought I couldn’t do it) followed by boat jobs (many after the beatings), catching up on other emails meant that I forgot the blog!Have to admit I have enjoyed wittering thoughts and technical sailing nonsense to all of you thankfully sad or mad enough to read it !St Lucia is a nice place … er .. what can I say …. It rained …. a lot ! I can imagine the gorgeous island paradise it is and at least the rain is warm :)! I think we were lucky (or skillful;)) to arrive in daylight and the Arc photo guy came out and took some lovely pics which we bought of the boat reaching then fetching into the finish line as the wind was disturbed by the island land. read more...

PG Roshni - 29/11 2020 Nearly

14:46.2N 58:55.9WEvening all Is it my old eyes giving in or what - just seems very dark tonight. The stars are out and as fabulous as ever with no light pollution to spoil them but it is dark! We should have the moon by 10 so it'll be fine for helming, in the interim Daisy is on the case and just as well as it is a bit light and sh..e atm.Our friends on El Gato have exotic names for all their sails eg Zoro for their Code 0. Our main now called Colander has another hole appearing in front of the 2nd batten. Had to put one reef in and oversheet the main to protect it in these last 150 miles we have to go... We made possibly our penultimate gybe late this morning to head for the N tip of St Lucia. The technique for doing this with the fancy carbon pole is a bit of a polava which starts by. read more...

PG Roshni - 29/11 0000 Squalless

14:53.9N 56:02.8W 287nm to goMorning allA set of black angry clouds appeared just before dinner last night (Nigel did very well with 1/2 an onion and some tinned ham). So being well prepared (aka having taking a bit of a kicking a couple of nights ago) we took the jib off the pole and broad reached with 2 reefs in the main. Wind built to 30kn but no more and I didn't get wet. The worst of it seemed to be tracking off after another yacht that had come into view heading SW. It was the first boat we've seen in real life or on AIS so quite exciting but twas only fleeting as the darkness chased it!Susan felt we had done all this squalling bit and where were the whales and dolphins she'd been promised by the many sea faring folk of Beer ? Most we've had are FFF (f flying fish) - another. read more...

PG Roshni - 28/11 1150 Clunk

14:40.5N 54:26.9WHad a bit of sleep this morning following the early watch so feeling relatively sparky even though I was woken up by the din of Walk of Life (the absolute worst Dire Straights track ever) blasting out of the cockpit speaker above my port aft cabin. Having rescued the volume control I decided to see if we could locate the source of the mystery Clunking sound that originates from what seems the centre inside of the mast. Gave all the shrouds a good tug, tested the bolts at the mast foot, tensioned a halyard or 2 to reduce the load, more backstay/less etc etc and still the noise persists. On the basis that it's been doing this noise since Biscay I don't think the rig is about to fall in...Anyone has any ideas please let me know. Trucking along with good breeze now on a. read more...

PG Roshni - 28/11 0105 Wind

Morning Quite a relaxed evening and night so far. As we get closer to the destination I am more relaxed about fuel consumption and we can run Dave and Daisy (engine and autopilot - why ?!) more and have a few hours each day off from helming. To be honest Daisy is much better at helming in light breeze (light and sh..e) but gets knocked about when 'fresh to frightening'. Sea state has eased to Less than 500nm to go now and starting to salivate over thoughts of a cold beer. Susan has the ice bucket all ready (we'll have to rob El Gato of some) for some fizz (that we'll also have to rob). The crossing has been a great experience especially for my system having had nearly 2 full weeks without a drop of alcohol :(.In other news:I read a few pages of a book before snooze before watch tonight-. read more...