Last night the wind filled-in as forecast and we were able to shut down the engine at midnight while still making good speed toward our destination. The winds are currently 15-17 kts E-NE and we are sailing with genoa only, making approx 8 kts directly to our waypoint which is 50 nm north of the Columbia/Venezuela border. We have been advised to stay well offshore because of a weather feature of rough seas and light winds where an ocean current meets the tradewinds off the Peninsula de Guajira. Also our insurance does not cover the waters of Venezuela because of the risk to US-flagged vessels so we are staying well offshore.
The boat seems to be operating very well, the autopilot has not missed a beat but one of the projects we did not complete was to program the remote control for the autopilot which would enable us to control the system from anywhere onboard. The relocated port chartplotter is much more convenient than in its previous location at the port steering station. We were able to replace the main ship's batteries in St Lucia with the eight-6v batteries I had been looking for all summer and the additional capacity is very noticeable. We will have a chance to test the operation of the new diesel genset later this afternoon to re-charge the batteries. We tested the reinstalled watermaker last Sunday when we went out of the harbor to watch the other boats depart and were pleased with it's operation. The boat looks very good with all of the gelcoat repairs completed, varnish touched-up and the entire hull, deck and fittings polished. There are a number of small projects which we hope to complete while underway to San Blas.
Our chef seems to be feeling better today, hopefully will be back to normal soon. The sous chef prepared a feast of Fruit Loops and mueslix for dinner last night, but the meal was still appreciated by a hungry crew. We are looking forward to a more appropriate dinner this evening...
The girls have yet to begin their schoolwork in earnest, fortunately they are approaching a state of total boredom which will make schoolwork seem exciting. Their first task will be to send a status report to their classmates via email later today.
We have seen quite a few ships in the area, mostly just on the AIS display but sometimes close enough that we can actually see them passing by. The AIS system continues to amaze us in its contribution to maintaining a safe lookout for other vessels.
Based on the weather forecast we will likely see the wind shift to the east and we will have to rig our genoa to the mid-point of the boom. Although we have the spin pole on board, it is only partially rigged and would be too difficult to use. The mid-boom technique developed by Hubs during the ARC should work very well regardless.
That's all for now... BRIZO crew signing out!