15 43 N  57 43 W

Now that we know we are almost to St Lucia, we are all expressing strong wishes to have the passage overwith….these incessant wobbly, disorganized, confused, lumpy, rolling seas and swells just try and beat you …but we’re not having any of that beating….well maybe more than we want to let on.

Gorgeous tropical weather these last 3 days and again, now, today for a 4^th in succession. We are keeping our fingers crossed that we don’t get a batch of squalls mixing in with the sunshine….I have seen a few storms 15 miles from us in the past hour on our radar…but they broke up without reaching us. Sea water temp has been varying between 27 and 29 C….presently the coolest for days at 26.7 C……doesn’t seem right to use the word “cool” when one grew up racing in and out of the water in the Bay of Fundy with summertime highs, if lucky, at the 23-14 C versus the more normal 10-12 C…..brrrr.  I guess better strike that word cool as far as temps go while we are the Caribbean.

Everything is holding together well on Sea Mist; a few minor repairs will have to be made to the sails to revitalize some stiching etc at tacks and clews….and a 2 or 3 minor tears…maybe 1-2 cm…in the panels. Otherwise…. knock on wood…. We have had good fortune with the boat ……AND…with our bodies. No injuries to report ….always the sailor’s array of bruises… but that is normal on a sailboat.

Now as we are into our last day and a bit, we are watching the fuel situation even a bit more closely. Think we have 23 hours of engine time if we used up all of the fuel but, with the rocking and rolling, you would not likely be able to draw all of that from the tank as air would get sucked in….NOT GOOD for a diesel engine. If we can get somewhat of a break from the rolling during the day, I intend to transfer to the boat tank the 40 litres of fuel from the last 2 jerry cans we brought along as contingency. That additional fuel should be about 4 hours of engine time….or another way to look at it…the additional will allow us to draw down all of the fuel currently in the tank.

We have been throwing flying fish off the deck everyday but at end of day yesterday, a first: found a squid had landed on the foredeck and was nicely baked from the very hot sun that persisted all day yesterday….another throw back….

Our thoughts are now clearly of standing once again on terra firma and doing last minute preparations for Christmas….turkey and all the trimmings from Chez Cheryl’s galley. The one thing missing will be all the family so far away.

Cheers to all, last Blog update for the passage is now only a day away. DTG 214 nm