Onwards ito the darkness
Associate3
Chris & Katie Russell
Sat 9 Dec 2017 21:25
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13:41.85N 54:51.39W
The expected wind and squalls found us after sunset and
we battened down the hatches accordingly and rolled away the genoa to leave us a
well reefed (small) mainsail with a 'preventer' to control the boom . The
issue with closing down the boat when the rain/wind arrives - washboards in and
all hatches tight shut - is that it becomes very airless below - akin to a sauna
as it is so hot and humid but it is difficult to know how much rain or
wind there is going to be - so you have to do it...............as soon as the
rain has gone we release the hatches and open her up again - much to the relief
of the off watch crew
In addition the moon did not rise until about 04:00
yesterday so we had no light and could not see where we are going. This is when
faith in boat, equipment and crew becomes paramount. We were barrelling 20/30
degrees off the wind surfing down the front of waves at up to 10 knots into
pitch black darkness in 30 knot winds. A sobering experience and not one for the
feint hearted.
Suffice it to say that we survived - and only broke a
couple of minor things - at a lot closer to St Lucia. Although we were all
very tired this morning we were on fine form to enjoy a day of calming seas and
reducing wind. It gave us a record day's run of 159 miles
We finally saw some other boats last night - lights only
- and today a Danish ketch crossed tracks with us bound for Barbados.
The first for 7 days
We have started whispering thoughts of arrival - we are
expecting lighter winds now for the remainder of the trip so it it is difficult
to predict. If I was to send a warning to the local bars it would be to
watch out for a bit of an invasion from early Tuesday onwards!
353 miles to go
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