Salamander - YB Connect Message from Timothy Richards

Day 10. Small Boat, Big Ocean

Dear Salamander Nation,

We are in Salamander conditions now. Winds are averaging 20 knots out of the NE, with seas building, and we anticipate a series of 170-mile days to come. We are in the expansive middle period of the crossing, too many days into the sail to think about our departure from Las Palmas and too many days from Saint Lucia to begin anticipating the welcomes (and justifiably famous rum punch) to come.

The watch system adds rhythm and structure to our days. The starting and ending times of each watch are fixed on GMT, so sunrises, meal times, sunsets and star locations shift steadily earlier as we move west.

There is no land or any possibility of seeing land. There is seldom another boat in sight. We sail.

Jimmy's word of the day

Humility: a low or modest view of one?s own importance... as in "Sailing a small boat across a big ocean under a blanket of stars teaches us humility."

- The Crew of the Salamander