18:46.675N 084:18.261W
Shaya Moya
Don & Susan Smyth
Thu 12 May 2011 11:07
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We are now some 200nm south of Cuba due west of the
Cayman Islands. Reece has been fishing diligently every day with not even a
nibble, maybe the oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico have something to do with the
lack of life here? We are trying to sail directly for Cristobel in
Panama but are being pushed west of our course line by a South East wind. If we
continue like this we will end up in Honduras, a 150nm ahead of us. If the wind
does not go back to east or hopefully north of east as it should be at this time
of year we will have to put in a tack and head eastwards.
Apologies for no picture updates at the moment. We
have done the sunrise sunset sailing etc before so we await a huge fish from
Reece for a photo opportunity.
A moment of light relief! As the dawn breaks gently
in the East some lonely watch keeper on an oil tanker or freighter is playing,
"I'm All Out of Love" over the radio. This is the first bit of radio
chatter we have heard in a day. Not a sentiment Reece and I can share as we are
in daily contact with Sue and Lea via the Satelite, either an email, a text or a
phone call. Is technogy not a grand thing!
We have settled into a four hour watch routine
which gives us more time to try to get some rest, although the heat has made
this a difficult task-as I write this at 06h00 the temp is 27deg outside and
30deg inside. We are running the air-conditioning to cool down the boat when we
do the daily charging of batteries which gives some respite from the heat.
Those of you who worry about us out here can rest
assured that we are being careful and are not pushing either the boat or
ourselves, after all we have thousands of miles still to go-whets the rush! We
wear our life jackets for night watches and when the sea is rough( like
yesterday-which added to the heat discomfort phew) We also wear our man
overboard lifetags when ever we are on deck. At night there is no going out of
the cockpit for anything. If something happens that we need to go on deck we
wake the off watch person to come up and assist. Witness taking down the
spinnaker pole night before last at 3 in the morning before we rounded the
western peninsula of Cuba.We have registered the
yacht and our voyage with the UK Maritime authoraties who have our EPIRB
details( emergency position beacon) We update Sue with our GPS position at 06h00
and 18h00 every day via text.
Reece has gone off to his airconditioned cabin for
some well earned shut eye and it is time for me to break out the Nespresso
machine to make myself my morning coffee.
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