Passage from USA to Puerto Rico

Sea Topaz
Duncan Briggs
Mon 24 Nov 2008 17:52
29.15.415N; 068.11.307W
 
Day 5 of our passage South and the nicest one so far. The sun is out and we have taken a layer of clothing off. We are still wearing foul weather gear, including wellies. The Musto clothing has been brilliant over the last 10 days of cold and wet weather.
We said goodbye to Christine and Jim of Baroness on Thursday morning. We had "buddy boated" with them for four days, which was great fun. (So we could moan about the cold weather together over the radio).
Armed with a personal weather forecast from Chris Parker we set off on what we knew would not be an easy passage. We got across the Gulf Stream before the bad weather came on Friday. We had high seas and strong winds. The hydrovane nor the autopilot could cope with these conditions so we had to hand steer. This was hard work. Duncan did two hours and I did one hour  watches. Things have been easing off since then. We have had the wind on the beam or slightly behind so far, which is great, we are doing about 140 miles a day.
We are both really looking forward to a few days in Culebra to recharge our batteries and catch up with admin. Then on to the Virgin Islands to meet Questionable Logic and Ewan, who are due to set off on their Atlantic crossing tomorrow.