Raritan - Raritan – 12/2/18. Day 8: Today we won the downwind argument with Raritan (sort of)

After a week of begging the boat to deliver us a more downwind sailing option we finally cracked the puzzle by using the boom, genoa and a wild assortment of rigging. The result is a more southerly course that we anticipate will keep us in prime breeze and heading to St. Lucia. (For the less experienced sailors reading our blog, our trip is at times a maddening desire to go one way, coupled to the reality that wind and boat dictate going another, thus a mile – or day – of sailing often results in about half as much progress toward “sundowners in St. Lucia.”). I’ll leave it to the more expert voices on the blog to detail our approach to getting downwind, which involved Captain Ian clipped to the end of the boom, but is clear that Raritan has offered us her first major concession to our twin goals; to “go sailing,” and “get there.” To celebrate, we went fishing and did laundry! We’re still waiting for dinner as dusk approaches, but the pervasive smell of dirty polyester has been replaced by flagging laundry strung beneath the bimini and the general appearance of a vagabond boat. Our crew continues a garrulous recounting of past exploits, shared experiences and catching one another up on families, work and home life, along with favorite movies, books and bands. Midnight watches, painful at times, feature reminiscent tales of our exploits in the Annapolis of the late 1980’s, absent friends and our college days then segue into discussions of our children’s challenges and accomplishments, family vacations, recent sailing adventures and schemes to connect in the future for new adventures. But we’re still 1607 miles from St. Lucia, seriously engaged in an adventure that will be hard to top.
– Pete