Current position "14:54.8N 53:54.2W”. No catches today – just a false alarm as weed got stuck around a lure. We’ve also had weed around the prop which was giving a vibration through the hull -  we cleared by turning the engine on for about 60 seconds running forwards and in reverse. Otherwise we’re all getting tired of night watches – the wind is pretty benign at night so there’s little need to helm and still no boats in sight, so it’s an enormous struggle to keep one’s eyes open, seemingly for no reason. We sighted one other sail 30 mins ago – the first for two days, despite being only 420 nm away from St Lucia.

 

We’re still heading slightly south of the direct course to St Lucia as the forecast is for a dead patch of wind directly in our path. Unless we get hit by a real calm for a significant period we look good for arrival sometime morning through afternoon Thursday. Priorities will be showers, vvv cold beer, and probably a great steak, fine wine (if such a think is possible to beat our own fine wine, aged in our carefully slopped through bilges), sleep and no watches at night!

 

So today, after being hit by a small-ish squall, which meant we’d taken the cruising chute up, we decided this was a great opportunity for a swim – so Graham, James and Byron took the leap – leaving Chris on the boat to come and pick us up if the boat drifted on the wind, as well as a fender on a line to be able top grab. All we can say is that swimming in 4000 metres of deep deep blue ocean is fabulous. We got out a diving mask to check the prop – looking into the deep blue under water is an amazing sight; just as it looks on nature films – deep, blue, and goes on forever, even if one doesn’t quite believe it when watching TV. A wonderful experience.