Saturday  3/12/11 – Downhill Sailing? – 16:40.1N 43:21.9W

Having formally crossed the half way mark, we hoped that we would be able to freewheel down to the finishing line, trade winds wafting us westwards nicely. No such luck….

There has been a bit of meteorological activity in the Atlantic that our weather man, Chris Tibbs, has been watching carefully. Without going through the complexities of what is happening, there are developments that are disrupting the normal trade wind pattern. Today has been a bit of a wash-out, with winds light and variable, and trying to make good headway has been a trial. We have worked through all our sail options, as the winds oscillated from 15 knots to 8, and moved from East through East South East, to South East: twin foreails, parasailor, gennaker and all the variations in between!

Chris has also directed us to a more southerly waypoint, to avoid squalls and to put us into better winds for the run into St Lucia, so we have had to adjust course and add a few miles, as well as accommodate the fickle winds.

Still, there are compensations. We did sight other yachts today, and managed to speak on VHF to a nice young couple who are on their own. We originally met them on Fuerteventura before they arrived at Las Palmas, and greatly admired their bravery in doing a double handed Atlantic Circuit whilst still in their twenties.

They had also been working hard to make progress today, and were envying us the parasailor which helped get us a few miles. We did not talk to them about the gennaker (which made us many more miles) as they were already feeling the strain after a difficult night with autopilot trouble.  Maybe we are not so badly off after all!

Bedtime for teddy bears

Sleep tight,

Watergaw