17:56.75N 55:01.06W

Day 19. Fri 03 Feb. 18 Days of Sailing

Distance Covered: 2815 nautical miles

Distance To Go: 399 nautical miles (as the crow flies so this will be more, especially as we go around the island to enter the harbour )

Approx. Arrival Time – Monday morning…

Well, this may well be my last post at sea! After almost three weeks at sea we now find ourselves within a few hundred nautical miles of land. Yesterday we spotted two birds – a sure sign that land is approaching, but as yet no other ships ….

We are all getting excited with the thought of our imminent arrival – the girls can’t wait to have a swim and Erwin and I are looking forward to a decent night’s sleep and a cold (alcoholic) beverage overlooking a beach.

Our night shifts have fallen into a pattern that suits us both, and I must say last night, with no squalls to deal with and a pretty steady wind we both had our best night’s sleep yet. Our shifts have worked out to be as follows:

I do the first short shift between 7:30/8pm until 10pm whereby Erwin takes over and does the 10pm – 1am shift. I then do the 1am-4am shift, Erwin the 4-7am shift and finally I give Erwin a couple of hours hopeful sleep before breakfast at 9am. If I’ve had a busy night I then put my head down after breakfast … This has worked well for us both - Erwin, being the gentleman that he is doesn’t mind which shifts he does as long as I am happy, lucky me.

So, shall get the weather forecast now and hope it is to continue like this – clear skies, steady winds and calm seas.

The sea has been getting steadily warmer as felt by our showers on deck which consists of throwing a bucket (or several) of sea water over ourselves before finishing off with a short, fresh water rinse ( though being the cold water woos that I am I take more sink – filled washes than the cold water ‘showers’ on deck). Roll on a hot shower! We will all be in there for hours I think; something else to heartily look forward to.

So Antigua here we excitedly come and in the scheme of things we have a very short way to go now …..

Next update will hopefully be from Antigua!

Jane, Erwin, Sofia and Isabel

xxxx