Hi everyone, hope you are all well?

We are now into day 3 of our passage to Jamaica. The rhumb line to Port Antonio is about 350 nm and so we have a couple more days at sea before our ETA at the West Harbour Saturday (4th March). Looks likely we will arrive mid to late morning Saturday. At this very moment it is dark, the skies are clear and ALL the stars are out. As forecast the wind is light and so we are doing a bit motoring to make sure we keep to schedule. However our next waypoint is about 50 nm off and at that point we head turn to starboard by about 20 degrees which will mean we will be able to fly the parasailor on starboard tack with the good heading direct to Port Antonio.

We are just about 50 nm of the southern most tip of The Dominican Republic; our passage is made a little longer by the need to keep plenty of distance off the coast of The Dominican Republic and Haiti.

 

It is 0044 local time, Thursday 2 March; here is what it looks like outside our window right now. 

  

We flew the parasailor (on port tack) all day yesterday which meant we were able to keep sailing at reasonable speeds in the light winds. The heading was not perfect and it put us a little further south of our waypoint but it was not so bad. We have seen a few ships but not many. There doesn’t seem to be many sailing boats this far west in the Caribbean Sea. In fact we have not seen any. Our radar (showing a range of 24 nm) has nothing on it! No boats or ships at all.

We haven’t mentioned our cooking for a while; it has been a little difficult as we have had some problems with the gas system. However we were (well Michael was!) able to fix our gas cooking system with parts that Clare brought with her to Puerto Rico. So now we are fully equipped with our gas cooker and a portable induction hob that we purchased in Martinique. Hot Dogs and onions for lunch and Quasedillas with tomatoes, avocado and rocket went down well with all crew members today. Now we have the gas oven back we can do some baking! So that is the plan later today; Cherry Madeira. Pictures will follow of our first attempt of baking at sea particularly for my cake baking buddies Kate and Karen.

The sun is hot during the day and in the night it is still warm enough to wear shorts and t-shirts. The (slight) sea state allows us to keep the hatches open to allow the air to circulate in the cabins and saloon. However open hatches do sometimes encourage visitors! This little guy had managed to make their way into the aft cabin through the side hatch.

 Anyway, that’s it for now. Will send a short update later today or tomorrow with results of the baking experiment.

Take care where every are.

The crew aboard Lilli Mae.