Newsletter  13:   19 December 2007 

Day:                                                               11

Position:                                                       19:58.128N  43:34.737W 

Approx Miles from San Sebastian:              1670 

Approx Miles to go to Road Town:              1148                                                               

Note:  All times are GMT time, and will be for the whole trip.

            Miles are Nautical Miles, where 1 mile = 1.8 km

            Ohh, for those non-nautically orientated, a 'knot', among other things,  is 1 nautical mile per hour

            If it seems all funny units...its not, there is a very good basis: 1 nautical mile is equal to one minute of latitude on the earth's surface.

Hello Friends, and Supporters,

You will see that 'We' had another good day yesterday and have just snuck under the 20 degree North parallel! Its a case of 'make hay while the sun doesn't shine'! Yesterday afternoon was pleasant sailing, 8-14 knots of wind flat sea and boat sloping along doing 4-6 knots! Lovely stuff for recovering from the hellish night of minimal sleep, and for bucket showering, reading etc. Not so good for great progress, but hey don't get greedy, its still progress. Many cruisers would love to average 5 knots for 24 hrs!

Then come sunset the wind picked up to 18 -20 knots and off we went. It was a great 120 degree angle and stayed consistent like that until two hours before sunrise Other than the odd cloud squall, that raised pulse rate a bit, but because the sea was better than the night before, the autopilot dealt with it all. So a lovely 5/8 moon night, lots of stars, so I didn't even put navigation lights on, and I virtually had my 50 minutes uninterrupted sleep, followed by a 10 minute wakeup check and chocolate. Full rig up, averaging 8-9 knots, the stuff perfect sailing is made of!  Two hours before sunrise, I felt awake and needing to be active, so took over from the autopilot 'driving' Solone. How pleasant and pretty emotional as I played my favourite music track too! Soon the wind started increasing, but steering myself I was comfortable I could hold the full rig. It was exhilarating stuff...reached 17.5 knots, with many long humming power surfs of 15 and 16 knots! Making hay while the sun doesn't shine!

Eventually I needed breakfast, so tried the autopilot but got into a few wild screwups. The sea was quite big now and running across the beam, making it very difficult steering conditions, and the power off Solone's big mainsail was just too much. Reefed down, just managed to have breakfast as the wind increased further and now down to 2 reefs and still managing 9 knots on autopilot, with surfs up to 10.5. Could be going faster if I was steering out there now, but I've made the hay, and now I am enjoying the relative peace of writing to you! The laptop keyboard is swinging around a lot as I type, but that's sailing!

Yesterday was a special day for me.... yes halfway, but even more special was the fact that it was 'The furtherest from land I have EVER been on MY OWN' . Not that it was scary, just that the enormity of where I am, the vastness of the ocean and the earth, and the fact that I am living my dream, all came together to be something very special.

Right other stuff!

Fishing:  I FINALLY untangled the fishing line....at least 5 hrs of work involved! Attached the new and special repala, launched the line, while 'we' were still doing the 4-6 knots, and then waited! Ooops...I waited till this morning...got so involved in the sailing! So this morning, first thing I see is that the line has wound itself up again into a mini 'birds nest' ...hmm I wasn't born to fish! Anyway I real in the line and yes....the repala has gone...taken but a HUGE fish...I saw it get away!!!!! Time to retire from fishing!

While bucket showering yesterday I lost the bucket as the handle came loose and I waved it goodbye as it drifted towards the horizon. 

I hoped for a 'problem free' day and got one, so I'll hope again today!

One thing that is good having the smaller sail up is that the stress on the boat is less and also all the sheets and halyards are now 'in new places' on the cleats, blocks etc so wear and chaffing if its there, is shifted to new places, reducing chances of failure.

I just hope the wind keeps like this, but my grib file yesterday shows light stuff coming around the 22nd Dec. Lets hope that's wrong and changes over the next few days.

Because I am travelling virtually due west I am really noticing how the time changes rapidly. The sun rises noticeably later each day. Have to adjust my watch again soon! 

Lastly, with the 'largish' and cross running sea I have now, I thought of the rowers rowing in this...hmmm Thank God I am not rowing!'

That's it for this Wednesday 

Take care