Nearly there
ALICE'S ADVENTURES
ANDREW AND CELIA SHARPE
Sun 12 Dec 2010 12:37
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George has been asking since we left if we are nearly
there yet, well now we are. "Only" 117 miles to go. We sailed all day with
the twin headsails up averaging 4 knots. The boat wallowed and sails didnt
fill most of the time. We saw a tanker earlier this afternoon and then by
late afternoon there were 3 yachts in sight. We called up the one closest
to us on VHF and surprise, surprise it was Bonobo who we were next to in Las
Palmas. We knew they had spent a day and a half in the Cape Verdes and
were a bit upset that they had caught us up. Now we have found out the
reason why. They motored down there and bought loads of extra cans of fuel
and have been motoring to catch up so we decided to join them and motor
too. We thought it was their fancy cruising chute that had given them the
extra speed. It sounded very civilized on their boat as they had wine with
dinner the last few nights. So we decided that 3 weeks was long
enough to be teetotal and we would partake in a glass tonight too. We are
now motoring alongside them. How lovely to see friendly
faces.
Sunday morning 10.30 UTC
Daylight and land in sight, can see St Lucia and
Martinique. 29 miles to the finish. Still only 6 knots of wind so motored
all night. Andrew had worked out a fuel ration and luckily because we had
sailed so well for the last week we have been able to motor this last
part. We did 7 days 16 hours of continual sailing and the engine was
only used then for charging the batteries as the generator is
broken.
Clocks have been put back another hour so we are now UTC
-4.
Hopefully this will be the last blog from sea and the
next one will be sent on wifi from Rodney Bay Marina.
ALICE
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