We really feel we are getting close…can almost hear a steel band on the wind.
We had a splendid night of sailing with 15-20kts of wind blowing us almost directly towards the island. Our rig of main to port, Genoa to starboard and staysail to port seems to work really well in this sort of wind speed and it is gratifying
to learn that the two boats to the immediate north of us were both flying spinnakers all night and failed to make any ground on us at all. Interestingly we believe two of them have now blown these sails in a 30kt gust that hit them directly in the early hours
and must have passed a few miles to the north of us. We did however get a little rain which gave the decks a good wash and also resulted in James’s feet getting a wash before he was able to close the hatch above his bed.
Right now, which is 1030 am, we have 270 miles to go to our waypoint at the bottom corner of the island.
There is a sense of excitement but also tinges of sadness that this epic adventure is coming to a close and that the three of us, who have bonded into quite a good little unit, will soon be talking to other people. How will we cope with the
crowds? Also we have very mixed thoughts on the arrival of internet connectivity! No doubt as soon as we get reception on our phones they will fill up with unread junk email, and do we really want to hear the world’s news? I am pretty certain that the news
from Ukraine, Gazza, and Trumpland will all be bad. No doubt there will be new political scandals at home too. Maybe I am being unduly pessimistic, maybe the world’s problems have all been solved during our self imposed exile…
One thing we are looking forward to is Googling the migratory habits of the Egret after our long legged white passengers left us. We hope their journey has continued successfully after their little rest with us. Today we have seen some
beautiful gannet type birds with huge wing span and very efficient diving fishing method. Would be nice to find out what that are too.
Finally I have to report the loss of the very last of our fishing equipment. Another huge “one that got away” must have swallowed our last lure hook line and sinker as the saying goes. I hope he does not have too much of a tummy ache! No fresh
tuna for us sadly.