Night 1 and Day 2

Kingfisher 2013
Peter Smith
Wed 25 Feb 2015 16:06
We rounded Nevis and happily set off on the leg up to Saba (past St Kitts, St Eustatius and then Saba, all on starboard) but we sailed too close to the St Kitts shore line and ended up with absolutely no wind at 0500 for about an hour and a half. By inching our way out to sea (literally being driven by the wave motion and flapping of sails!) we gradually got back into the wind. Rounded Saba and started a very long beat up to St Barts. We really suffered with low wind speeds (c.10 knots) and a strong current pushing us Westwards.The beat took us nearly 10 hours but we eventually rounded St Barts just after dusk and were on our way up to St Martins. Crossed over 3-4 boats in the race as we came around the North side of St Barts but we are out of sight of any other racing boats either ahead or behind us. We had concluded that we were in last position but messages by phone from various quarters suggest that we might not be quite at the very back…..we have had to adjust our expected time of finish to around 2000 on Friday which is just one hour after the prize giving starts! We now have a new target which is to get home in time to attend the 1900 prize giving.

Had a very good night crossing over the top of St Martins and started our long trek south east to Guadaloupe at around dawn on Wed. Guy and Jules had a very wet and windy watch between 0500 and 0800 this morning with several meaty squalls to keep them fully occupied. Tim and I came on for the sunshine and champagne sailing between 0800 and 1100 and now Mike and Colin are continuing to steer us down towards Nevis.

The 3 on 6 off watch system we are using is working very well. We have lost the generator with what we think is a blocked fuel filter so we are down to one tank of water (having used the first tank within 24 hours!). Showers have been banned although certain criminals amongst the crew have sneaked a quick shower this morning - they shall remain nameless. Other than that we are in fine fettle, cruising down the coast of St Kitts in the sunshine, 17 knots of wind and plenty of Atlantic swell.

The sat phone just will not connect so I am shooting this off via my iPhone hotspot courtesy of St Kitts telecoms. More will follow as soon as I can get another connection.

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