Day 10
CuriousOyster
Steve & Trish Brown
Wed 3 Dec 2008 12:15
This trip continues to be a roller coaster ride with little of the typical
trade wind sailing that the ARC is noted for.
Despite the weather predictions yesterday turned out to be a great days
sailing with winds in the 10 to 15 knot range and with continuous sail
trimming we were able to keep up an average of over 7 knots. Unfortunately
this was not to last and at around 1.00am the winds died completely and we
wallowed around for about 6 hours before the light winds picked up again at
7.00am this morning. We are once more sailing at around 7 to 8 knots in 12
to 15 knots of wind but have changed course off our direct line to St Lucia
in order to find more consistent winds further south and to avoid a nasty
patch of unsettled weather coming up from the east.
These wild fluctuations in wind is a bit trying on the nerves but all aboard
are in good spirits and are enjoying the journey. We continue to see(and
pass) other yachts and can talk to a number of them over the VHF. Once we
had switched on the engine the night before last our overall position became
irrelevant and our aim now is to get to St Lucia as quickly as possible to
try and get Adrian there to meet Helen and also catch his plane home. At
present this is looking unlikely but we only need a couple of days of 20knot
winds and we will pick up a lot of lost time.
We have now covered over 1570 miles over the ground and have about 1500 left
to sail.
Those boats that got across the mid atlantic area a couple of days ago
should start arriving in 5 or 6 days time while the rest of us have at least
another 8 to 10 days to go at our present rate.
Todays guest writer (Glen) is asleep at present having come off watch
earlier today so I'll get him to add his thoughts later.
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