13 December- So near and yet so far

Moulin Rouge
Philip Barltrop
Mon 13 Dec 2010 14:16
14:08.388N 57:05.513W
{GMST}14|08.388|N|057|05.513|W|So near and yet so far|So near and yet so far{GEND}
 
With what should be just a short distance to go we should be able to see land soon. Relatively speaking our 230 or so miles seems a short distance but  we've actually come the best part of 3000 miles and won't see land until we are 30 miles away. Timing our arrival is also proving difficult as that rather depends on what we do about time zones. The best idea so far is to change the clocks on arrival so that we get longer in St Lucia and less time afloat. Philip is tending to use the 4 hours change multiple times in the attempt to further shorten our journey. 
 
Last night was somewhat frustrating as the wind dropped. To make progress we had to have the engine on but to make sure we have fuel to motor into St Lucia we can only go so fast ... too much speed and we could run out of fuel before we get there!
 
It's been another wash day today ... Mark started it and Philip followed ... Ben is in the washing queue. Unless Andy washes the towel he has been using as a sarong for the past 2 weeks we will have to fly code flag "B" on arrival in St Lucia (carrying hazardous cargo).
 
Ben and Colin have been making bread and chocolate chip cookies ... they won't last long.
 
As always our correspondents have come up trumps with answers to our questions. However no-one has got even close to the correct solutions this time. The questions ... with correct answers ... are shown below.
 
Q. Why are pirates called pirates?
A. They just aaaagh ... (this needs to be said with a pirate accent to be fully appreciated).
 
Q. What is a spar-lash?
A. It is the noise the anchor makes when it hits the water .... splaaaash.
 
We've been at sea too long as these jokes which Colin caught everyone with on day one are still funny.

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