Arc Day 18 - End of Passage

Tucanon
Dick and Irene Craig
Wed 9 Dec 2009 21:52
Wow! We are now on the last part of the crossing, just 75nautical miles from
Rodney bay at 9.30am. We will have been at sea a few hours over 17 days when
we arrive.

We waved to Ian and Anna as we passed Barbados, 60 miles to port, at 8.30 am
local time, It seems years since we spent last Christmas with them there.

We have now adjusted our clocks to four hours behind UT, having reset them
to cater for the final hour, only yesterday.

Lots of boats are still running on UT but reckon that once they arrive and
hit the bars, or a boat with a well stocked cellar, by the time that they
recover, it won't really matter about the time.

Well done Jasmine for solving not one, but two riddles set by Chris , during
our late afternoon chat. Well, it was late afternoon to us but lunchtime for
them. Trust that the party last night was as good as it sounded from where
we were, four miles to port of you.

Last night was a lovely starry night. Even the Milky Way twinkled and
sparkled at 9pm.

The lights of five other boats were visible last night, at least until
midnight, though only one showed on the radar. The subject of radar
reflectors on boats is a worrying thought. We use a SeaMe active, radar
reflector which provides us with lots of visibility to other boats.

Thank you for the e-postcard from Jan and Henry who believe that to auction
the basil plants is a poor tribute to their loyal service. An important
issue such as this has to be discussed amongst the crew. The result will be
declared on one of our future blogs.

Bad luck Irene, who at 84 years young bought a laptop, for the sole purpose
of following our trip. The Vodafone dongle ceased working as we left Las
Palmas. We will have to send the blogs to her via snail mail.

Land ahoy! It was more a case of the watch lifting the VHF handset and
calling on the intercom, to alert the rest of the crew that land had been
sighted around 15.30. What was even more pleasurable was listening to the
excitement in the voices of the crew on other boats some half an hour later,
when they sighted land and called others over the VHF.

Austin and Chris are aching to make landfall to meet up with all the new
friends that they have made over the airways, during our passage. Boats that
don't have an SSB on board really miss out on the virtual entertainment
while at sea.

Now that we are approaching our destination, it is time to inflate our
fenders and put the new covers on them. In itself a simple task you would
think but in reality, a garage full of stuff has to be moved, from one place
to another, to gain access to the components required to do the job, then of
course, they all have to be moved back. In this particular case, the gear is
stored in the workshops, at the bow of the boat. Access to the workshops is
via a hatch in the deck and then a ladder to the floor. All this while the
sea goes up and down.

Doing almost everything on a boat, even obtaining a bag of sugar, entails
moving dozens of other objects first and then replacing them all afterwards.

Pancakes for breakfast this morning and sardine salad for lunch. Cook
prepared apple fool to replace the fruit salad, being most affronted that
canned fruit had even been mentioned.

Supper tonight is chilli and rice, one made earlier and still loitering in
the freezer, until this morning. Being dependant on factors outside of our
control, we are unsure of our time of arrival, which makes chilli an ideal
meal as it is so simple to reheat when needed.

Irene

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