Across the Pond - Day 10

Jackamy
Paul & Derry Harper
Fri 27 Nov 2009 09:00
20:33.265N 36:23.631W


Thursday 26th November


Today has been a great day! The seas have been calmer and the sun has been beaming down. We're noticing the closer we get to Antigua the hotter the sun is. Once again Paul and Paul have spent most of their day trying to figure out what to do with the sails! The cruising chute was put up first thing which has helped to stabilise the boat, making the motion you get with downwind sailing much more manageable and we've been sailing along at 7-8 knots. But the main question of the day has been 'To twistle or not to twistle?' We believe the twistle rig was invented to cause confusion and debate! I suppose I should explain what a twistle rig actually is................it is a mechanism to allow you to fly two head sails efficiently. And Paul has made his own!

We've realised we've probably moaned about the swell a bit too much! We're aware it could have been much worse but it's just frustrating when simple tasks become difficult. But anyway as we've said today has been much better!

We passed the half way mark early on today so we celebrated with bacon and poached egg on toast and a glass of wine. Then this afternoon I took full advantage of the calmer seas and baked a lemon cake for afternoon tea!

We're still gaining on some of the boats and we've even passed two in the last 24 hours but I think we should all be arriving in Antigua quite close together. 

Another flying fish fatality today! They must be thinking 'The only boat within 100 square miles and I have to bl**dy land on it!'