Trade winds - found
Mandalay
Robin & Jenny Martin
Fri 10 Dec 2010 21:58
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Our hunt for the elusive trade has ended and we 2 great
days and nights of strong winds pushing us towards St Lucia. In the days before
we had been wallowing in everything but a following wind and our daily totals
were scraping the bottom at 120 miles.
The onset of the trades gave us new vigor and with
Maymio at full speed at 9.9 knots we blew the spinnaker from side to side. No
panic, we took down what was left and put up the No. 1 jib. We learnt later that
several spinnakers had been shredded that day!
Three days later here we are with twin head sails
up aiming straight for St Lucia and just 625 miles to go. The great thing with
this rig is that it is able to cope with much stronger winds.
Since leaving Cape Verde the sense of isolation has
increased as we have seen very little shipping and the only wildlife seems to be
flying fish. One of which attempted the impossible task of flying through the
wind vane, leaving behind it's imprint and a few scales.
We are having fun trying to keep ahead of our local
competition, now sailing fast down wind is the key and trying to stay as
comfortable as possible.
We have now been at sea longer than expected but
enjoying the experience. Maymio is performing fantastically making us feel very
safe with only a few minor breakages - touch wood.
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