18:09.7N 042:22.8W

1200 UT Friday, 3 Feb

 

Yesterday (Thursday) was a quiet and straightforward day during which we had near ideal conditions.  We were able to make good progress and maintain our course throughout the day and the night.  For brekky, Craig surprised us with Eggs in Windows and there followed more culinary delights throughout the day – the subject of future editions of the blog.

 

 

However this morning brought diminished breeze, as forecast, and progress slowed.  The time had come to hoist the spinnaker.  Crew worked together in seamless coordination and minutes later the spi was flying,  boat speed had doubled and we were back on course!  Yippee!  We’ve been going along nicely ever since with the breeze between 10 and 20 kts.

 

 

 

If that were not enough for one day, suddenly, at 1130 boat time, a blast of the whistle was heard and a call for all hands on deck.  Skip announced to the assembled ships’ company that we had crossed the half-way mark and the order was given to “Splice the Mainbrace” (hurrah!) – the Mate was ordered to issue double rations of Evian (booo!) and cans of cold beer (gasps of disbelief! Skip and Mrs Skip smothered in gratitude!).  Added to everyone’s delight – a precious packet of Ruffles.  Now that’s worth crossing an ocean for.

 

 

And there’s more: this afternoon, Boat Time will move another hour back.  We shall be 3 hours behind GMT tonight.  This will provide us with an extra hour for entertainments.  It could be a movie or it could be card games.  Find out in the next thrilling instalment.

 

Post script.  We’ve received a couple of comments about our chosen course.  There are some people out there who think we are headed too far north.  The Navigator would like to inform you that we are following a Great Circle route which is the shortest distance between two points on the surface of the globe.  In spherical geometry, that means that our course curves gently north for the first part of the passage before rounding southwards.  It also raises the question of exactly where are we heading?  On this point there has been some debate.  When we set out from CV we were bound for Antigua.  This was selected as suitable landfall because it’s close, has good yottie facilities and offers excellent transport connections for those leaving LS.  However, provided that we can maintain our current progress, we should have enough time to continue on to Anguilla which is the preferred destination.  So right now, we are on course for somewhere between the two and the final decision can be made when we are somewhat closer.