Atlantic Crossing Day 18 14:01.7N 58:06.9W

Stargazer
Andy & Jo
Thu 16 Mar 2023 18:54

Atlantic Crossing Day 18  - Thursday  16th March 2023

 

Last night the seas abated a little (thankfully). The mate saw two ships, the first for 18 days, I took a sight on Polaris and all in all the night passed without drama.

 

Today has been hot and sunny with a variable and fluky wind. It took quite a time to drop the number 4 and pole out the genoa (due to a rolling sea state). The poled out genoa will [probably] be our final rig until Rodney Bay. We managed with no engine last night to charge the batteries as we expect to have to motor later this evening and possibly through the night as the wind is forecast to drop to below 8kn (almost becalmed again!).

 

We expect to arrive in Rodney Bay midday-ish tomorrow, so our plan is to call up the marina and head straight in. We could drift under sail through the night (at a very slow speed) and be later arriving tomorrow or Saturday sometime and then anchor, but I think the mate and I are both keen to wrap this passage up. The sailing part has been fast and without the calms, Stargazer would have crossed in 14 days but the earlier calms and now today’s calm has added 5 days to our run.

 

We’re busy now, doing navigation stuff, digging out courtesy flags, emptying some diesel into the main tank, and the like. We expect the evening to be calm, hopefully the seas will be. We’ll stick to our normal watch system and the first one to sight land wins the remaining chocolate (hope it’s me).

 

All being well, we’ll report in tomorrow with safe arrival in Rodney Bay, St Lucia, The Caribbean.