Day nineteen, nuh nuh nuh, nineteen

Adonde
Neil & Tracy Batcheler
Sat 6 Jan 2007 19:46
Noon position 14:18.2N 48:29.7W
 
Day's run an anticipated poor 111nm
 
Well we had closer look at those squalls last night, though not through choice of course.  It had been overcast all day and shortly after dark and the start of watches a sudden and distinct increase in wind was felt by yours truly (not THAT sort of wind) and with a quick glance at the instruments inside, our speed was doubling then tripling then, holy moly, was 12 knots before you could say oh no, not another night of tedium. An involuntary squeak from me got Neil back out of bed pronto and we were being lashed by 35 knots of horizontal rain as we rapidly reduced sail dressed only in our birthday suits.  That was a bit of a surprise, and probably my fault, as not much earlier I had been musing on the fact that we'd got this far without any squalls.  Fortunately, what looked like it might turn out to be a night without much sleep was bearable by being able to monitor them on the radar and take evasive action.
 
So today has been a little brighter, and, with more settled conditions, we once again have the Gennaker up, though progress is slower than we'd like due to not much wind.  There is still nothing to look at (or should that be there still isn't anything to look at?) which is getting a bit dull.  We see only an occassional bird, a shearwater gliding over the wave tops, or another, smaller type with a white rump and more pointy wings (sorry, don't know what it is) but were very surprised yesterday to see a small, yellow butterfly flutter past.  Watching the birds and wondering how they glide so close to the water without getting wet is amazing but a butterfly?!  Bit of a more serious proposition if they get it a little bit wrong.  And it didn't even stop for a rest; just had a little look around the cockpit and flapped off.  Isn't nature amazing!!!  Why make such a fragile little thing migrate over an ocean?  Or maybe it was just lost...  Today's nature moment consisting of finding a rather stinky (dead) flying fish on top of the bimini - that dismount would definitely have got an 8.9 from the judges.
 
We'd also like to say WELL DONE to Malarkey, the first boat in our group to make landfall, arriving in Bridgetown, Barbados today.  If you read this you jammy gits, please put the beers in the cooler and save us a nice quiet spot in the anchorage as we would quite like to go to sleep now please for more than 3 hours. Only problem is you might have wait a few more days for us to catch up; think you can manage?!