21 24N 70 25W

Osprey
John Bowering
Wed 12 Nov 2008 11:25
0600 on the 12th November having departed Turtle Cove at 0900 yesterday. A rather later departure than anticipated as we had to wait for customs to come and clear us out. Weather was not inviting with intermittant rain and 20 knot winds. The exit through the passage was interesting as with the wind speed it was necessary to travel as fast as possible to prevent the boat being blown sideways out of the channel. The rain and squalls proved to be very local and an hour after passing through the reef there was a big improvement and we were able to sail until we reached the northern end of the Island. At that point the wind was against us and we were back to motor sailing. Having come south into the Turks and Caicos to avoid Lapalopma as opposed to sailing east we look as though we are going to be stuck with head winds for the rest of this leg and have to motor sail most of the way. The forecast does have the winds becoming more northerly during today & tomorrow but we shall see. With the head winds it may take a little longer than expected to get to the BVI and if that is the case we may spend some time cruising around there rather than heading straight on to Antigua. If we do that then Jonathan and Finn may fly back to Miami from there rather than comming on to Falmouth.