fish & wind

Heerenxvii
Sun 28 Nov 2010 10:21
17:48N 26:36W


For those who worry about our food & drinks on board, no worry, H purchased
more than enough, both fresh and canned food and double drinks, so we can
last at least another month, even while throwing a daily portion over board.

Mostly 5 to 7 knots of wind, not enough to have a stable sail, although we
are getting better with the PARASAILOR. Our targets are quickly diminishing,
originally we aimed for 8 knots. Then, as wind reduced, we were happy if we
sometimes clocked 7, then with no wind motoring we did 6+, followed by
PARASAILING with very light winds doing max 5 knots, we struggled yesterday
night to keep 4 knots on the clock and this morning we were happy if we were
at least doing 3+ knots, what a wind drama. But, a new day with new
chances...

Again very little wind this night and during the day. Only since a few
hours (it is now 5.45am sunday morning) do we have about 10 knots of wind,
Bf3. We have downloaded the latest weather reports and used a software
program (maxsea) to calculate what route we can best take. This is very
smart software as it takes the sailing characteristics also into account,
resulting in a suggested path to follow, which we are trying since this
evening. So, we are now cruising on a westerly course the first time, and
expect to go this direction for a few days, followed by a steep change
south. We still expect to arrive in St Lucia before newyear's eve and indeed
brefore X-mas :)

In order to optimize the 'logistics' on board with regards to
eating/drinking/washing up etc, we wisely decided to move Happy hour back
one hour!

Today we were overtaken by a Swedisch boat, and we have tried to get back to
him but nog good. A also failed for the second time to reel in a fish,
although H did record the effort.

And while E and A are doing this shift and keying in the blog, something
fell in gangway on deck next to the cockpit. We checked it out and YES, a
flying fish!!! We decided to leave it for now so we can use it for bait
later on sunday in order to catch that enormous tuna :)

Hn & H have done a mini was, as they both are running short in semi clean underwear.