15:39.8N 46:09.5W

This sailing lark can be bloody frustrating!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Once again we sailed into a windless hole yesterday morning and tried to coax every ounce of boatspeed out of the light a flukey winds. In the end we gave up and used the time to let Glenn send his medallions to the bottom of the Atlantic and for Adrian to take a deep water swim (3,800 metres).

As night was beginning to fall we still had no wind so again reluctantly switched on the engine and motored through the moonlit night passing areas of rain squalls that gave us some great images in the setting sun.

As dawn broke the wind picked up slightly and with a good wind angle and a calm sea we set the main and raised the big cruising chute and are now racing along at 8.5kts in 10.5 knots of true wind speed. PLEASE WIND GOD..KEEP IT JUST LIKE THIS FOR THE NEXT 5 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

The first boat is due to arrive in St Lucia today, a big Swan 82 with a professional skipper and crew plus the owner aboard. Its 12 noon GMT and in 1 hour we will have travelled for 14 full days since the start in Las Palmas. My original forecast was for the crossing to take 18 days and with good winds from now on we should make it in 19 days, still not bad for what has been a very light wind year. We can only hope that we get at least another day of full on winds that are the attraction for an Atlantic crossing. If not.........well we will have to come back and do it again.

Glenn

Sailing across the Atlantic is no small feat in and of itself. However, to commemorate the event for us and to add a degree of uniqueness, months ago I came up with the idea of having a medallion struck for the crossing. The idea was that during the crossing I would toss the medallion into the ocean, allow it to sink to the bottom, and retrieve it. Outside of a few treasure hunters, how many people have anything that rested 12,000 feet down on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean?

Well, the four crew on board S/Y CURIOUS are among the limited number of people to have sailed across the Atlantic, (following much of the course sailed by Christopher Columbus), and we claim to be the only 4 that have a medallion which touched the ocean floor at a depth of over 3,800 meters! It was a joint effort of the four of us, fraught with technical challenges and difficulties, but in the end we succeeded. We attached the medallions (one for each of us, and one for the artisan, Margie Corley, who crafted them) to 6,000 yards of 40lb test fishing line, weighted the line, and heaved it all over the side of CURIOUS into the azure blue waters of the Atlantic. After approximately 45 minutes of falling, we determined that bottom had been reached and set about to bring them back onboard. After almost 2 hours of hard hand-lining in the blazing sun, we had them back on board. Each of us now has a unique commemorative of an experience that, for me personally, has been “Living a Dream”.

We are now within 1,000nm of St. Lucia and this may therefore this may be my last opportunity to be guest writer to the blog. I want to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to Steve and Tricia Brown, owners of CURIOUS, for allowing me the opportunity of making this passage on their yacht. Tricia you are the best, all your extra effort regards my diet is really appreciated. And many thanks also to the other crew on board, Adrian Vicker and Chris Darlington, for making the passage more memorable and enjoyable that I could have ever imagined. This entire experience has been rewarding in many ways, not the least of which is the fellowship and friendship that I have enjoyed. Steve, Adrian, and Chris, you have been great guys to share this experience. Thank you to everyone.

Glenn Ross