Grateful Red - day 20

missed day 19 - so slow that sun and moon came and went.Stupendous night last night - full moon, clear sky and crystal smooth seas.flew the spinnaker in very light winds - more for show than sailing progress.Hoping for the full moon wind phenomena - as the moon pull increases so does the wind speed (also known as the Sunnyside effect).Didn't happen - as in the Odyssey - the contrary winds were stored in the bag never to be opened but with the caption tied to the mast to hear the voice of the sirens the crew opened the bag of contrary winds and didn't return to their home port for three years.Not wanting to take this chance with my crew and the local winds I decided to motor the last fifty miles. Oh contraire. Daiquiris at noon in st lucia. ken. read more...

Grateful Red - day 18

another day of sailing, drifting and popcorn with beer chasers.slowly moving toward st. lucia. In the old days when the wind went light to drifters the crew selected the crew member bringing the bad luck with the wind, put a cannonball in the bad luck crew member's drawers and dumped him overboard.Not so sure how effective this technique was in obtaining wind but probably highly effective at keeping crew whining in drifter days to a minimum.so far I have been using the lot of cold beer technique - easier to enforce.Ken. read more...

Grateful Red - day 17

winds to zero, we flaked the main, rolled the jib, had a couple cold beverages, took the night off and .... emailed land crew our GPS coordinates and requested that they beam us some wind.Worked! Today started as a light asymmetrical spin reach, evolved into a beat to st. lucia (yes scotty the new i Beam technology from Apple really works). Again cookin' at six plus knots on an ocean beat but land crew is definitely going to beat us to st. lucia.ken. read more...

Grateful Red - day 16

well we wished and we now have the sun - clear and bright.Trouble is that the wind went with the rain.We are now beating at six knots to grenada (or we could go on the other tact and beat to St bart) - but we are sailing fast.Following the sailing proverb "better to go fast to nowhere than slow to somewhere'.Lucky for us that beer supplies are good and the refrig is working - we will survive to go down wind another day ....... hopefully soon. Ken. read more...

Grateful Red - day 15

a sailors night - winds from drifter to 25 knots plus, we beat, reached and ran as the wind came from many directions.It drizzled, rained, poured and "we can't see because there is too much rain".Did a foul weather gear check and washed the boat at the same time still ...... averaged over six knots.After night of no stars nor moon but lots of rain sailing the off shift crew stepped to the plate - hot food!Noodles and burger never tasted so good. And today "here comes the sun"! ken ps packers 38 to 35.twelve and oh.. read more...