Transat - Day 13 13.15.60N 55.01.20W

Suzie Too - Western Caribbean
David & Suzanne Chappell
Wed 8 Dec 2010 12:48
Oops a bit of a Groundhog Day, cos I posted 2 Day 11s - anyway the wind is still around 15kts, but directly behind us so we are running deep with a wind angle of around 165 - too deep really and then we gybe once a day to run north or south of our rhumb line. So we are still sailing further than we want but at least we are going more in the right direction and the VMG remains high.

For the last 2 days we have been running wing on wing on wing - if that make sense. We have the main out to port and the yankee poled out to starboard and then the stay sail is set on the same side as the main - giving us power from all 3 sails, but making driving downwind quite hard on the concentration and a bit rattily at night in the lulls when we roll on the swell.

We have emailed the marina, cos we are making landfall on the north west of the island near Speightstown at Port St Charles Marina and they have confirmed our booking for the nights of 9,10 & 11 Dec. This is about 10M north of the capital, but is more yacht friendly than Bridgetown which handles large cargo vessels and cruise liners. Then we can re-fuel, make a few repairs and re-provision before heading out to the anchorages in the Grenadines.

Our arrival will be late tonight 8 Dec, but it will be too dark to enter, we are not allowed to anchor without permission and the offices are open from 0600 to 2200. So the plan will be to reduce sail and sail slowly to arrive at first light and tie up to the fuel pontoon then wait to be boarded by Customs & Immigration, before we are allowed to disembark

277M to Bridgetown, Barbados

Suzie Too Crew