Counting down.

Lochmarin
Mon 11 Feb 2013 22:48
13:01.83N 56:36.84W

It's starting to be real: the fact that we'll arrive. Probably tomorrow, and probably in the dark. Somehow, that often seems to happen, I guess it's a fifty-fifty chance!

We are still on the blank mid-ocean part of the chart plotter, still in 'Here be Dragons" country but we can fit us and Barbados on the screen and still zoom a level in! About 180 miles to go now. We're finding ourselves looking to see if it's less far too often. Like kettles boiling, it only seems to happen when you don't watch it.

Good job we're getting closer to land, we're still fighting off the scurvy but fresh supplies are getting low. Some lemons and limes, a few onions, plenty of potatoes, a couple of aubergines and a butternut squash remains! The garden was a failure, I'm sad to report, it was thriving when we left, I was anticipating harvesting pea shoots every few days, but it just withered and failed to progress. I made sure it didn't dry out but I think the heat may have been too much for it... however today I picked all that was there and we had fresh salad in our falafels, not bad after 12 days at sea! Last night we had boat made puttanesca with pasta, we breakfasted on carrot, apple and sultana muffins this morning and had curry for supper.

We've had a number of sail changes today as the wind has backed so we couldn't keep on with our down wind twin jibs. We swapped back to jib, staysail and mizzen, then added the mizzen staysail. In the afternoon we swapped the mizzen staysail for a reefed main, but the wind picked up this evening so we dropped it for the night. It has felt like quite a busy day!

We've seen a few different birds but Arthur the Tropic Bird and Wilson, the petrel, still visit each day. The Toad is in disgrace: he ate the last of the fishing lures so no hope of a last minute massive catch now!

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