Wednesday. Day 17

Alcedo
David Batten
Wed 11 Dec 2013 21:37

Am. Still having a rip roaring sail towards St Lucia. We have at last managed to find a 24 hour period where we achieved over 200 miles under sail. Now there is just 154 miles to go and we expect to get there in the early hours of Thursday.

Our twin running sails have now been set for over four days and have proved a really successful way of going down wind. The sea is a bit rough and the boat is thrown around a lot but we are still maintaining high averages. Our noon to noon run today is 210 miles.

In order to prepare for the arrival Venetia (the ships boy) has been collecting brownie points by cleaning the boat, doing the rubbish, sweeping the bilges and, in the afternoon, hanging out over the stern to clean the back of the boat. Ship's Boy is always working! We are very pleased that bilges needed a brush rather than a sponge, so the boat is dry in the best sense. We certainly have not run out of alcohol.

The real trade winds are here now and blowing at 20 - 25 kts, the sun is out and hopefully there won't be too many squalls to upset our day.

Pm. Wind has dropped and the clouds are gathering, will our last night bring squalls and rain? Now less than 100 miles to go and the champagne is in the fridge. David G is preparing supper, the St Lucia courtesy flag has been raised and we are trying to work out engine hours and speed, quite tricky as most engine hours were motor sailing with the engine just keeping her going fast enough to keep the sails full.

There is a party atmosphere on board as we study the finish line and wonder how the hell we are going to get the second twin running sail down. Almost time for social half hour, so signing off.

Alcedo

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