White Satin - Christmas pud and a star in the East

2880 miles sailed, 150 to go

White Satin is continuing to barrel along towards St Lucia with on-board
life made very challenging by the motion. We move carefully around each
other in a kind of slow motion
ballet holding on for dear life as the boat lurches from one side to the
other. When you go to fill
the kettle, after turning the tap on you need to sway
the kettle from left to right and back again along with the motion of the
boat, in an effort to actually get most of the water
into it and not just spray it liberally around the sink. Trying to sleep
over recent nights has been like being in a large washing machine on a
delicate cycle - last night it was more like heavily soiled cottons!

Yesterday was David's 60th birthday and although it had originally been
expected that we would be in St Lucia by then, we did our best
to celebrate the date in style and what a fabulous and memorable location
for a
big birthday. We all had a shower pending our arrival into port tomorrow;
David had an accidental towel-misfunction on exiting the shower, and
briefly was appropriately attired in his birthday suit (no photo !).
Fortunately only Vicki got the Full Monty experience.
The main saloon is decorated with Happy Birthday banners balloons and
numerous birthday cards and at teatime we had a lemon brioche complete with
candle.

We again had a whale
following us for several hours yesterday - surfing down just under the
surface
of the waves as it came towards our stern, then flipping over on its back,
going under the keel and back behind us only to repeat the process again a
few minutes later.
Last night we enjoyed a superb evening meal - Christmas and birthday treat
in one. Ginless tonic as an aperitif, confit de canard, gratin dauphinois
and asparagus followed by a sumptuous Christmas pudding. True to form,
however, there was a hiatus between 2 courses as a squall arrived,
delivering winds gusting up to force 8 and a skipper relishing the
conditions at the helm in torrential rain as he saw the boat speed register
16 knots as we surfed down a wave. Eventually those of us sheltering down
below could see some stars starting to appear in the east, conditions
improved and the pudding was eaten - yum.

Although David has decided he rather likes squalls, the rest of us are less
keen and we were hoping that that was it for the night - however, winds have
remained high and the waves and swell are large. The Atlantic isn't giving
up without a fight. Now very much looking forward to arriving in St Lucia,
hopefully by this time tomorrow.

Squally times
Fiona