15th Dec 2006. Man, I feel like a Woman
Fleck
Fri 15 Dec 2006 12:52
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Noon position: 15.24N, 50.46W
Distance made good over 24 hours: 121 n
miles
Distance to go: 598 n miles
ETA; 20th at 0200 (good, but prefer to see as we
approach St Lucia!)
A wonderful 24 hour sail: Yesterday the trades
gradually returned, but in bright sunshine, and relatively flat seas. This
happened earlier than forecast, and put us in good spirits. During the afternoon
Geoff spotted three whales crossing under and behind the boat. I was
galley slave but heard the one of them blow just after G's call. Unfortunately
they were not very interested in us, and didn't stay to play or chat.
Fortunately they didn't need a back sctatch either!!
We reflected on news from the fleet that some of
the early arrival crews have been kissing trees in St Lucia: presumably grateful
and pleased to be back on land: We feel a lot more ambivalent: yes arrival is
exciting, but in other ways we don't want this unique experience to end.
Still boats are getting into trouble and we have
had to offer 100 litres of water to two Australian boats about a day in front of
us: I dont know how this will work in practice: stoping to wait for us for a day
isn't going to help them get to St Lucia any quicker, as they are doing 4kts as
it is. We don't know how bad their situation is. Will keep you
posted.
At dusk conditions were still moderate but your
prudent crew decided to re-arrange the rig to twin headsails, under cover of the
deck floodlight, as the moonlight dissapeared about a week ago. This proved a
good thing as the wind continued to build during the night, with one or two
squalls. A big yacht sailed past us to starboard, about four miles
off.
This morning it's back to rock and roll, with still
building seas, breaking crests, but plenty of wind for now. This brings us to
Geoff's choice of song for today. We have the cleanest loo in the fleet, but to
keep it that way we now have to sit down again!
Thanks to Liz, my sister, for her message, and a
happy Xmas to you, Dave and Abigail; and indeed to anyone else reading this who
would normally get a card rom me: as this year I'm afraid you
won't.
Richard and Geoff
PS forget all that ambivalence stuff, Geoffs sea
legs have wobbled again in the new seas!!
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