We are into the last two days of our voyage. The miles have really begun
to rattle down. That’s in part due to fact that for the last three days we’ve
been properly into the trade winds and we’ve had some great sailing with 15 to
25 knots from the East pushing us on at a pace under mostly sunny skies.
Xplorer glides through the swells, absorbs the gusts and accelerates. It is also
down to the arithmetic. If you’re doing 150 miles a day when you’ve 1500 to go
its only 10% progress each day. When you’ve got 450 to go then it feels quite
different. We should arrive in St Lucia on Saturday after 20 days sailing.
We managed to have a squall free night last night which was a bit of a
relief after the previous one. On Tuesday night we had two big squalls. Tom and
I managed to negotiate the first one OK but in trying to reef for the second
one the mainsail furling line snapped. Our mainsail furls into the boom and
this does not work without the line. It was a classic all hands on deck moment
and Anna, Tom and Tony did a fantastic job in securing the mainsail to the boom
while being lashed by real tropical rainfall and up to 34 knots of wind. I was
doing my best to keep the boat pointing in a direction which best enabled them
to work and stow the sail. Yesterday morning we managed to rig another
temporary furling line but we can only have the mainsail up to a maximum size
of two reefs. Since the wind is now fresh it doesn’t lose us too much speed but
we are losing a bit. Probably half to one knot.
Not only are we nearly there but we still have water to drink, food to
eat, water to shower in, diesel to charge our batteries and beer to refresh
ourselves with.
And there are still funny moments. In the middle of last night when Anna
was on watch the electric autopilot had an aberration which caused her to shout
‘help, help I need somebody up here’ Tony, Tom and I were all there in a few seconds
– wearing nothing but our. underpants. I think Anna may decide to sort any
autopilot problems herself in future!
Anna was also the major victim to a rogue wave that hit us out of
nowhere yesterday afternoon. Tony and I were enjoying a nice cup of tea in the
cockpit when a large lump of the Atlantic hit us and drenched us. There was a
loud shout from downstairs as Anna, who had been asleep, was fired across the
saloon bruising legs in the process. She was bruised but Tony and I had
the more serious problem of very salty tea to drink.
On the wildlife front we are all very disappointed not to have seen a
whale but Tom and Anna claim to have heard one the other night. We have very
seen few dolphins recently but continue to find a few flying fish on the boat
each morning when we do our rig check. Basil the pot plant was eventually
buried at sea a couple of days ago having developed an even more bedraggled,
mangy and unhygienic look. Tin Tin is missing Basil greatly, but is looking
forward to being reunited with Val again at the weekend.
Val arrived in St Lucia on Tuesday and I am looking forward to seeing
her too!
Peter Bamford