Blue Wonder - Tuesday 7th December
Rapier 550 on tour
Mark Jarvis
Tue 7 Dec 2021 17:27
|
15 03N 058 28W
Today will be our last full day aboard the Rapier 550 on
this trip as we are now only 168 miles from our final waypoint and around
noon local time tomorrow we should be arriving at Rodney Bay marina, St Lucia.
Today's trip started with around 240 miles to go but having gotten the parasail
flying soon after dawn we have averaged between 9 and 10 knots every hours since
and we should be able to match our previous best record of 220 miles in 24
hours.
The seas are again quite large offering some surfing
opportunities and the boat is regularly topping 15 knots on the front of waves.
I have been hand steering for a couple of hours now and it really is a joy to be
able to play with the waves and run down or across them at will. The helm
position allows perfect forward visibility of the waves and the light,
positive helm offers great control. Our record boat speed on SOG is currently
18.9 Knots but the Raymarine speed log showed a "Max Speed" indication of well
over over 20 last week after one particularly thrilling ride. Good
fun!
After a good old English Breakfast this morning the crew
have busied themselves with not much, as the order of the day is relaxing
and getting ready for arrival tomorrow!
The shore crew are already or soon to be on their way to
St Lucia and we are all looking forward to seeing them all
tomorrow.
We haven't seen a lot of wildlife on this trip, mostly I
think because the weather has meant that they are harder to see. However,
last night as we were taking down the parasail we noticed a pod of
small dolphins playing the bow wave and we enjoyed watching them for a few
minutes. They were much smaller than the dolphins we are used to back
home but no less fun to watch!
Fair winds,
Mark
|
