Latitude 11 15.925N  ; longitude 48 07.549W Friday 16 December 2022, day 15

We had a great day yesterday, covering 133nm through the water according to the log, good enough :) but ….. 154nm on the GPS if you calculate distance covered by longitude….. currents are a marvellous thing! In the afternoon the flying fish squadrons were out in force, giving very entertaining and acrobatic displays, shortly followed by a whole flock of petrels, chasing the flying fish! But the entertainment didn’t stop there, we had shadows passing close to the boat that when they came out of the shade caused by the hull, flashed electric blue, Greg reckoned these were squid? We also saw small fish jumping, I thought tuna? If conditions had been less wild we might have considered hand fishing…. but to be honest we couldn’t see how we could prepare a fish even if we caught one in the swell? We also both saw a shark swinging in close to the hull :0 we reckoned he was after dinner, again it made us decide a mid ocean swim was not a good idea, even if sea state had allowed! To cap it all off we had a small flock of 4 egrets circle the boat and land in a line along our mizzen boom :) squabbling for position! Greg thought they might be resting on their migration south? Unfortunately as is the way with wildlife, they are all very camera shy, so sorry no pictures!

Although the waves and swell were fun to watch and ride during the afternoon, the wind died in the evening leaving a big sea, but no wind to power though it….. we shook out both reefs in main and genoa but it was a wallow-ey night, making sleeping impossible. Needless to say we are both tired today.  Even so we are keen to keep boat speed up so we can get in somewhere on 23 December or earlier. This is important as customs, immigration, port authorities all work Monday to Friday and have bank holiday’s off! 24th December is a Saturday :| It’s 652nm to Barbados…. And making 120nm a day …. 6 days? That would make the  22nd doable …. but, Barbados according to our information is not great for cruising yachts….. and if we go on to one of the windward islands…. It’s another 100nm? Decisions, decisions?

So, to keep speed up as wind strength easing we decided on flying the cruising chute as a spinnaker, but when you are tired and the seas are rolly …. It’s Not as easy as it sounds. We had 3 attempts at hoisting for various reasons, then it was up and we were creaming along at 7 knots :) ….. but then we had an issue with our rolling genoa, yep the furling line again…. No idea how it happened, so dropped the kite in order to sort. Now, to be honest I’m feeling just to knackered to try again, so may be in a few hours when we have recovered? Just not our day for kite flying! Not been the best day in the office here, but still making steady progress:)

Alpha Whiskey 

Yours aye 

Greg and Sue xx