Nutcracker - So now the technical details....

The cabin boy writes: it does seem the Trades are behaving. 10-15knts rather than the 14-19 consistently forecast, but enough to push us goosewinging along at 6.5-7.0knts average over the past couple of days. Confused but low swells, so all quite sedate. We came still further S to avoid risk of finding a ridge which stretches down from the H over Bermuda to ' the Eastern Caribbean' - which is what you'd call a forecasting hedging of bets. We've been gybing and goosewinging as a kind of middle way between reach and dead run. Wind direction has varied quite a bit over relatively short periods, and frustratingly just too much E. But this evening our W progress and S push, coupled with what we hope is backing to a proper NE for the Trades, meant we switched to 3-sail reaching. Nutcracker is built for this, so speed 7.5-8knts currently in about 13knts apparent, right down what's left of the great circle to St L. Pole still stuck out to stbd in case wind goes aft, which makes for a decidedly odd- looking profile. As the skip commented, we are using every bit of string possible. But we promise to look Bristol fashion if & when we do get there...