Passage from USA to Puerto Rico
Sea Topaz
Duncan Briggs
Sun 30 Nov 2008 20:24
|
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. |