04.12.21
Today has started with a night shift that had something magical. Stars in the sky, no moon, auto-pilot, a glass of rum and nice conversation with my crew mate. Two yachts behind us, one upwind 2 nm away, the other 4.5 nm downwind. Everything perfect till a voice in the night breaks idillium: “Mary Doll- Mary Doll calling the vessel in position xyz”. Ouch, it’s us. Mary Doll is calling ‘cause they are approaching us and there’s less than 1nm between them and Tilda. I reply via VHF and he explains me that they see our navigation lights but cannot see us on the AIS, so they’d like to know our exact position, speed and course. Then propose us to go more downwind to leave their route, but with the yankee this is the maximum we can do. Second and third call, so we decide to let them go, easy and straight on their route, by changing our course.
Result? Slowly but relentlessly, Mary Doll overtook our gentle Tilda.
BUT, as we say in my home town… “there are more days than sausages”. Still hundreds of miles before Saint Lucia and, in case they arrive before we do, they promised us 7 cold beers in Rodney Bay.
The day continued with many sail checks and finally we are using the spi pole for the yankee. Few miles from us we had the opportunity to admire the red gennaker of Blu Moona. It’s nice that after thousands of miles the road is so busy ;)
Strong winds are expected to rise during the night so we prepared a triple portion of meatballs with tomato sauce for extra energy.
And red wine to toast another great day of sailing, friendship and fair competition.
Los Tildamigos
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