Hi everyone, well this is it; our last night at sea crossing the Atlantic.

As we write we are 76 miles from St Lucia. We are estimating our arrival time at around 9 AM local time (1300 UTC).

We sailed most of the day and night yesterday and took the decision to tack north east so that we could make one more tack west and get a good sailing angle into the gap between St Lucia and Martinique. The journey north was tough because the ocean swell created by the weather that has disrupted the trade winds were coming from the north and so we had a very bumpy couple of hours sailing upwind last night. 

By midnight the wind had shifted (veered) from westerly to north westerly and northerly. This meant the at midnight we had to tack. All hands were on deck. Once we did this it was a much more comfortable night and even better we were sailing on the heading we needed. We have been sailing most of the day today (Friday 9th) and then the wind died again! We tried the parasailor (the only light wind sail we have left in the locker) but not we could not get it to fly. And so we had to accept the engine had to be used (Grrrrrr!). Even more challenging we did not have enough fuel in the main fuel tank to get to Rodney Bay! We had hoped we would be sailing today. Why not I hear you say; well its a long story and one we will tell over Pina Coladas.

We have spent all day today figuring out how to get fuel from one tank to another with “old boots and shoe laces”. All Lilli Mae team members were involved. After a number of different ideas (some tried and failed) we ended up using a hand syphon with pipes and jubilee clips to connect the tanks inside the cabin. We all took turns operating the syphon using different pumping “styles” to ensure we had enough fuel in the main tank to get to St Lucia. 

Lilli Mae engineer Mike oversaw the make shift fuel transfer operation with an air of satisfaction of another tricky problem solved. Well done Mike!

We pumped over 150 litres into the main tank which means that tonight we can run the generator, engine, make water and shower! The shower is a treat well deserved! We also had a honey rum tot to celebrate getting ourselves out of another hole at dinner.

We have all talked about the plan for arriving in Rodney Bay and crossing the finish line. The hope is that there is enough wind coming from the north. Our plan is to cross the line on a close reach with as many sails as the wind can take! We have agreed to dress in Lilli Mae uniform no 1 for our arrival pictures.

Anyway, that’s it for now. We may be able to send a short note for our “land ahoy!” moment but we will be quite busy navigating our way into the finish line so we can’t promise.

Hope you are all well?

Will catch-up tomorrow

All the best, Team Lilli Mae.