blog 4
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Hi All
Strategy
overview:
We sailed south to pick up the trade winds and as
the nautical saying goes 'once your butter starts to melt, turn and
head west.' We did this north of cape Verde Islands. The trade winds are
established and we are romping towards St Lucia at 7-8 knots, occasionally 9.
We think our strategy is paying off as all of the northerly boats are encountering squalls and bad winds, some head winds. In terms of postioning, when you look at the fleet we are all handicapped. Namaste is 60th overall rating of the cruisers and a head of us (in rating) are 30 class A boats, 20 class B boats, 5 invitation boats and 24 ARC racers. Our over all position should be approx 130 on handicap. There are further penalties for running under engine, we have heard many have, but we have not. The next 48 hours should show the benefits of heading south. All positions you are seeing are distance from St Lucia, but we added 150 miles by choice to pick up better trade winds and ocean currents. Comparing daily distance is perhaps a better measure of our success or failure. In effect, until now we have gone south, only going west slightly. If our theory is correct, we should start to make up ground. But considering our rightful handicap position of 130, and the fact that we have only just turned to head towards St Lucia, we are happy with our most recent position of 100...for now...we hope to finish as high as possible! General boat life waffle: Lunches and dinners have continued in their excellent vein. Our cheese has started mature nicely - some rather too nicely! Our fresh supplies are now staring to dwindle slightly, save for potatoes, those green tomatoes, which are now red and have been fantastic from day 1, and bananas. We have a lot of tinned food on board so there is no danger of us going hungry. We might also start to fish again soon...since Chloe lost a biggy a day or two ago we haven't bothered as we don’t want to create anymore drag than is needed! We didn't actually see the fish that got away, but it had pulled the lure clean off the line...our rubbish knots you might think, but it was the guy at the fish shop who set up the rig so we are assuming it was a vicious beast that is better off down below. We had an uneventful night for the 1st time last night, the spinnaker flew all night with no problems meaning that we all got a good night's sleep. (our distance log for the last three days has been 155 nm, 178 nm & 170 nm). We are striving for a string of 200 nm days that will really give us a boost. Finally I am going to leave you with a line from a book that I'm reading; Pedalling to Hawaii by Stevie Smith. I really like it, and think its going to be my New Year's resolution to be true to it...basically what I'm saying is that I might have to get involved in another adventure next year!! Will and I have discussed the prospect of rowing from La Gomera to English Harbour in Antigua. Whatever you can do, or dream that you can do, begin it. Boldness has power, energy and magic within it. Lots of Love Namaste. P.S I understand that our latest position is not showing on the google image of our blog. I'm hoping to get this sorted soon. Right now we are slightly north and west of Cape Verde Islands. (17; 31.288 N & 26; 25.046 W) |