Day 4 - Pointing at St Lucia

Juniper
John and Sally
Wed 25 Nov 2009 11:44
24:06.180N 22:40.123W
 
Our first night of single man watches was uneventful with no other boats seen and about 5.5 to 7kts SOG. During the day the sea began to ease but we lost some miles due to my reluctance to fly the spinnaker with a big cross swell.
 
Weather is heating up and so is our boat speed - in the last 4 hours we have been back up at 8-9 kts with surfing down waves to 11.
 
Big change is that we are pointing straight at our next waypoint which means the DTF (distance to finish) goes down by a mile for every mile you do. Obviously if the wind angle won't let you sail diect then you will sail more miles. Yesterday we had to deviate nearly 30 miles from our intended track due to wind angles.
 
Strategy is now to move on to 23N 32W and then see what next. So far the winds look like  the direct line will hold.
 
All are fine - caught a squid on the deck this morning but too rough to fish today - more about the one that got away in a different installment.
 
John, Jonathan, Guy, David