Distance to go 337 nm 

 

 

Much of the progress over the last 24 hrs has been under engine unfortunately.  As we have to progress slightly more to the north there is no avoiding the quieter winds above us.

 

I forgot to report that Lin presented a treat the other day - a fruit cake bought in Rugby before Christmas that she held back for the latter part of this passage (I thought we'd eaten 'all' of them already). This is a nice, dense, heavyweight affair which I love.  Mon and Nev will know exactly what I'm talking about.

 

Around 0100, Colin, our electric autopilot, threw a wobbly and decided of it's own accord to turn 130 deg to the left.  Lin caught it on time, disengaged the pilot and put us back on course.  I had a fiddle with the settings when I next emerged from down below.  I tend to forget that you have to tell it at what latitude you are located (even though this information is available to the system from GPS inputs).  We were around 12 deg North and it thought we were at 30+ deg N.  Perhaps this was the cause of the wobbly?  Anyway back on track now.

 

The wind changed direction as predicted and we were able to sail again from about 0500 - pointing almost directly towards Barbados!  We use Colin when under engine and switch to Carly the vane when sailing.

 

Unfortunately the wind is dropping off a little too much now so it's play with the sails time.