N16:24.5 W58:26.1

 

The pace has been relentless and constant attention to fine tuning of the boat and a rather large lunch meant we did not have time for a blog yesterday (read; lazy lot). Our last update was from Malcolm’s new best friend Eddie and he was made to work last night again to earn his passage. Malcolm had to put up a brave defence when Eddie committed the heinous crime of ‘gybing’ and felt vindictamised, the double jeopardy of being blamed for the action of a third party while not being allowed to enter mitigation. The court under careful direction from the skipper who was law maker, prosecutor and judge in good Jersey tradition, gave careful consideration to all the facts before entering a guilty verdict. They then retired for gin and tonics with ice and lime. Sentence is awaited but in a rather touching moment last night, Malcolm was visited by his new girlfriend in a bid for clemency, who flew in to the galley writhing on the floor leaving behind her characteristic eau du poisson perfume and some scales from her sequin dress.

 

If our tactician/weather forecaster is to be believed we should finish sometime tomorrow morning Wednesday. The onboard sweepstake times range from 0600- 1212 on 12/12! this will mean a 15 day crossing time,at average speed of 7.7 knots which is way above any of our pre departure guesstimates. We are on port tack now for about 180 miles which could be fun in the night as we converge on the finish we lots of other boats though we have been in splendid isolation from them for about 10 days. The one small piece of gear we thought might break did do so, but the safety mechanism pre installed did the job well and we have not been hindered. The one amazing statistic is that we will not have a flown a spinnaker for the entire trip! They sit forlornly strapped to the deck while we have at long last become very adept at reefing the main up and down and sailing with poled out jib and enjoying our tropical sleigh ride toward Christmas.

 

Excitement building toward the finish and hopefully our next blog will be from a bar on the waterfront in Rodney Bay, when we will analyse our efforts, while offering minimal resistance to the blows of many Rum punches.

 

Bye for now

 

The boys and Eddie