Day 12 - New Years Eve - 164!

Mor Toad / Moy Toad
David and Jocelyn Fawcett
Wed 31 Dec 2014 13:06
17:13.58N 39:26.12W

Well we think at last the wind and boat have decided to get us to The Caribbean - it's romping along and we are just hanging 'on and in' there. The hanging 'on' is a challenge as it is really very rolly. We are all being very careful to try and hold on with two hands as we have all already experienced being thrown when a sudden wave sends the boat sideways . Bruises to show but we don't want anything worse. Last night the muscles in my back were pretty sore and again this morning . Dan the same I also think the thigh and core muscles are being exercised too. I certainly slept better last night - was petty tired but both Dan and I have realised if you wedge yourself in with pillows and duvet it does stop your body actually moving across the mattress though you still rolling.

The wind is just off the stern with a few degrees of Starboard in it. 20 a 25 knots gusting 30 and plus at times. Boat speed around 7 knots. The sea yesterday was very disturbed but today seems calmer with longer swell. One statistic David has pointed out is that our log (distance through the water on the trip) to date is only 4 mile different from the GPS distance which means that effectively we have had no assistance from the current in the trip so far. A bit disappointing as the predicted currents could have taken 2 days of the trip if they had been as anticipated.

So on we go . David came out of the cabin this morning and said 12 down 8 to go so we hang on to the positives - we are positive and just looking forward to getting to the other side and meeting up with Alex and the kids who are obviously having fun in the BVI and carrying on with the family adventure.

Although the sun is trying to come out it has been pretty cloudy for the past few days ( maybe a good thing?) but the temperature is pleasant and even the wind feels warm. Water temp still showing 29.7. As yet none of the squalls that all the books tell you about.

David and Dam have yet again had a go at changing the sail system to try and lessen the rolling. So down with the Genoa and up with the pole and the Genoa. Juries still out on that one! This morning my scant 2-3 inches of water I was washing with leapt out of the basin. My sunglasses fell into the washing up water and I managed to get black coffee everywhere, fortunately the channel round the inside of the fridge saved it from actually going into the fridge otherwise it would have been another heads down job!

As we have now moved the clocks back another hour so we are 2 hrs behind UK time and we are still continuing to send The Blog, any emails and positioning fix at 1.00pm UCT we have had to move our ' listen with mother ' to the afternoon. We are really enjoying Slocum's voyage round the world but sadly he's nearly done it. It was great to see a picture of Slocum and his boat Spray in a book - The Sextant - we gave Dan for his birthday.

Wild life spot of the day as the sun was coming up was a very elegant bird with a very long tail / feathers and very pointed beak gliding over the boat. Any ideas anyone?

So Happy New Year and Best wishes to all our family and friends around the world for 2015. Thanks for the various messages which have come in too.