We have maintained steady progress averaging 5 knots under twin-poled headsails with the wind stubbornly refusing to exceed 10 knots and with a north westerly swell from a mid-Atlantic storm.  We still expect stronger winds, hopefully generating at least 10 knots apparent and allowing Starcross to achieve hull speed.  Weather remains dry and hot with clear skies and the trademark "puffy" trade wind clouds, thankfully less humid although the rig of the day remains boxers and lifejackets.  Because of the positions of the majority of the fleet, ARC Control has rescheduled "arrival" parties but many of us believe even these dates to be optimistic - we do, however, expect to arrive before Christmas!

 

Mid afternoon saw us cross 35 degrees west and ship's time is now UT - 2.  We are into Week 3, and essential administration has been completed, eg: food shelves and fridges restocked, goodies cupboard refilled with unhealthy snacks to keep us going through the night watches, clothes washed, and fresh pillow cases distributed.  We have reverted to a more traditional watchkeeping system, with 4-hour watches of 2 crew and Ross floating; this should allow better continuity of weather forecasting and navigation planning, timely sail changing, and less disruption of sleep patterns from having one day in 5 off as "mother" (and allow time for Ross' HF net "anchor man" role).

 

We have not seen another yacht for over 5 days and our only sighting has been of MV Clipper Triumph, a tanker from Trinidad and Tobago with whom we enjoyed a chat during the early hours of 2nd December (AIS gives a vessel's name facilitatig initial VHF radio contact).  We do, however, enjoy daily HF radio contct with many yachts, the highlight of today's chat being a quiz with an international flavour presented by a yacht crewed by English, French, Greek, Russian and Slovenian aircraft pilots.  The result went to tie-break between Starcross and another yacht, with us losing by incorrectly identifying Europa as a Greek God and not a Greek nymph (we need to add a book on Greek mythology to the Starcross' library!).  We look forward to meeting all our correspondents in St Lucia.  This afternoon was also brightened up by the arrival of a family of dolphins whose company we enjoyed.

 

Looking forward to greater speed tomorrow.