Lilli Mae, On the way home - Leg 4 - The Big One - Update 8th December 19
Lilli Mae
Linton
Sun 8 Dec 2019 18:43
|
Hi Everyone, hope wherever you are things are
good.
Well we are still here and very much into our Atlantic
passage. So what are the current stats?
No of days at sea - 13
No of miles covered - 1922
No of miles to go - 973
No of fish caught - 0
No of fish nearly caught - 1
No of crew at start - 3
Current number of crew - 3
No of crew disputes - lost count!
No of squalls navigated - lost count!
No of whale sightings - 0
No of "Oh Sh!t moments" - 59
Overall you see a lot of very impressive passage
stats!
We can't believe that we have been at sea for
nearly 2 weeks; as you can imagine you lose a sense of time and
particularly what day of the week it is. The light and dark (and hunger!) help
with maintaining a sense of the time of day.
We have mentioned a couple of times other boats that we on
the journey across the Atlantic with us. Vague references have been made to
"lists" on which we get daily updates. These list rank all the boats according
to DTD (distance to destination). Our claim is that we started the "race" as one
of the last boats across the start line and we definitely do not intend to
finish last! This morning Team Lilli Mae brief was intense with Mike, Peter and
me all trying to get our strategy for the most effective sprint to the line. So
the sail area has been maximised and the "foot is down on the gas
pedal".
Last night we had a tough night. We were all up outside
our normal shift patterns and we were already a little fatigued from the
previous one. The squalls were our problem and we had strong winds to deal with
again. We had reefed the sail size (reefed) as a result of some early wind
indicators. Mike handled most of the difficult squalls in his shift from
2100-0100. At this point we were "running" with the wind; but with the wind
on our back we were going north of west and we needed to go south. So at
0100 ( the start of Peter's shift) we decided to gybe to head
south.
As a result of last nights work we crossed the "1000 miles to go" mark this morning and we
have a direct line into St Lucia. We do have some uncertainty about wind for the
next couple of days but we are now in a good position to overhaul a couple more
boats before the finish line. Right now we are heading is 257 degrees and speed
between 7-8 knots. Took a few pics of Mike at work preparing the boat for the
day.
Our photographs have been a bit boring; not much to see
out here so you'll have to put up with these "action shots" and ridiculous
selfies!
We anticipate about another 5 days before we get to
Rodney Bay; probably arriving next Friday or so. Will have time for a couple
more dispatches before "The Big One" ends.
Got to go now. Vegetable stir-fry for dinner tonight
which of course will be topped with a g 'n t (with lemon and ice) to celebrate
the 1000 mile milestone. Will talk to you all soon
The Crew aboard Lilli Mae.
|
