I can't believe that we are now into our 12th day at
sea. We are less than 1250 miles from our destination and possibly looking at
arriving in St Lucia towards the end of next week. That will not be a day too
soon as the persistent strong winds and high seas are tiring although we are
making excellent progress towards St Lucia. We gybed today, a process which took
three of us over an hour to perform, and are now pointing directly at our next
port.
One casualty of the high seas has been our celebration
for reaching our half way point which we did a little over 24 hours ago. The
planned celebratory dinner with champagne has been delayed as cooking
in these seas is extremely difficult and the idea of adding alcohol into the mix
was deemed totally foolhardy! Currently I am using the frozen food which I had
prepared in Las Palmas for meals.
Maalu IV continues to look after us very well however
any moment of inattention allows the waves to pitch us off balance and we are
all collecting an amazing array of bruises. Iona's unique watch system has us
all well rested even if it is a challenge to sleep in a boat that often feels
more like a tumble dryer. Despite all this morale is high and we are starting to
make plans for our time together in the Caribbean.
We continue to be chased by squalls as we cross the high
seas. The crew have been renamed as the squalls do appear to treat each of us
differently. Jono and I are the "squall busters" having experienced the
strongest gusts of wind at 39 knots. Iona is the "squall magnet" as she gets
more than her fair share of drenchings and Nicholas is the "squall dodger" as he
has got much less wet than the rest of us. We are now very familiar with the
pattern; the squall becomes visible on the radar or by sight, the leading edge
arrives with strong wind which may change direction from the prevailing wind and
then the rain starts, and boy does it rain! We are all in full wet weather gear
for night watches as it gets pretty cold when we are wet. Squalls have gone from
being exciting, to a minor inconvenience and are now a total pain. Oh goody,
they get more frequent as we get closer to the Caribbean! The only upside to the
squalls are the glorious rainbows that appear.
Conversations between yachts on VHF radio have become a
real source of excitement. In the early days it was clear that ship to ship
calls were between crews who knew each other. Information was exchanged about
weather forecasts, sail plans and prospective routes. As the fleet spread out,
and VHF only works on line of sight, new friendships are forged as we call, and
are called by yachts in our vicinity. One of these new
friendships is with Mary Doll, who we have crisscrossed tracks with since the
first night, and today passed within half a mile of her after 1642 miles at
sea! It is reassuring to hear that her crew are experiencing the same as
us and are making very similar decisions. We are now sailing parallel courses
only 10 miles apart. We are looking forward to sharing a rum punch with her
crew at our mutual destination.
Challenge of the day - Jono has broken out the Christmas
playlist!
Highlight of the day - surfing at 15.4 knots down a
wave!
m_RainbowMaalu