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30:11 23:24.380N 22:30.925W
Well according to my predictions we should be in
the 'Trade Wind' by 4.20 this afternoon. Therefore we will do an extra check of
lines and rigging (courtesy of 'Jerry the Rigger' from Gosport- faire and honest
rig work, at fair and honest prices) 'The 3 Minute Rig Check'.
I will give the crew extra rations of dried
biscuits and an extra thimble of rum. A hearty lunch of sirloin steak and what
ever veg or salad is looking a little worse for ware. we will then sit and wait
for the wind to pick up.
We hope that our new 2nd hand headsail for a very
reasonable 100 Euros will take us to the front of our pack. Courtesy of Deepesh
we have made up an excel spreadsheet that shows us our position in relation to
the rest of the fleet and although we all seem quite close we haven't seen
another ship for two days now. It would appear that many have gone 'WEST' to
pick up the trade winds higher up or to just go straight across. Rather than
head SOUTH or SOUTH WEST like us. But if our spreadsheet is right we nicely
positioned front middle, slightly nearer to Africa than some others for a
quick get away. Feed back is always welcome from those on land to confirm our
findings as having the computer on is a drain on our batteries.
Those at 'Yachting Monthly' (free magazine in the
post they promised me), have asked us to provide feed back on our electric
consumption during our passage and for those of you who maybe interested in
doing the same next year or the year after, here are my best tips to
date:
1. We purchased some LED battery operated lights
for the cabins, heads and galley. As this will save several AMPS a day (one 10w
bulbs pulls 1 amp when on, there are 18 on my boat). They're not very bright for
reading, but for filling the log, cooking and dressing they work very
well.
2. LED bulbs in NAV lights, these are expensive
44 Euros each but reduce our demand on consumption by over 3 times there normal
demand. This has helped to allowed us to run our fridge on 'max' since we
left.
3. The 'Hydrovane' (self steering system) has
allowed us not to use the autopilot, by allowing us to steer by the wind.I have
not mastered all aspects of the Hydrovane, but down wind sailing I've got it
pretty sorted. On day one and two we did use the Raymarine ST60 autopilot and
our power drain was not excessive.
4. The DuoGen, to date I have not had much luck
with this piece of equipment. Let me explain, from the UK to Portugal we did
like so many others, have to motor all the way. From Portugal to Canaries we had
problems with our batteries (only got them sorted 4 days ago). So we have only
had the last 3 days to go on. And even at an average speed of four and
a bit knots at present it would appear to be keeping us topped up very well. I
feel that when we get to the trade winds and double our speed and some more, we
will be buzzing with electricity.
Enough of all this techno babble, yes we've seen
some wild life and lots of water. But the most striking thing for me to date is
all the stars. Before the moon wakes from it's sleep the stars are so bright
they light up the sky all around you. The more you look at a cluster, the
more stars seem to come into view. Some so bright they show you the way by
reflecting light onto the sea. But when a big clouds come over, it's like death
is creeping up on you, steeling every bit of happiness, turning out the
light in your world, one by one. So much so that when death has clawed every
last star from the sky and your solitary world has become pitch black
that you can't even see your hands in front of your face. It's time to go down
bellow for another Mars bar.
Little Blue signing off on UTC plus one. We've
started to take of an hour off UTC every few days to get into Caribbean time,
but for one problem. Does anyone know the right time in St
Lucia?
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