Arrived Puerto Rico 21st Nov 2006 last Daily Log

Wing and a Prayer
Joy Hughes
Thu 8 Mar 2007 11:57
Position 18.19.333N 65.36.337W
speed 5.5 k
Dist travelled through the water 120miles , 1547 Total ,
wind 19k SE
Sunny

yes we have arrived , we hit our final waypoint at 10.30 ships time 11.30
local time or 15.30 GMT

What a trip! We have had every kind of weather you could dream of from fog
at the start to gale 40k to a 4 day beat in 25K to a fantastic 2.5 days of
reaching with the trades and achieving a record distance travelled for the
boat , then the
trades dropped and we had to beat again until this last 24 hrs , again in
the trades up to 29 k to take us to our final destination
Unbelievable and one for the memories
The highlight for me was during the gale when having been battened down
below for 18hrs I popped up for a look around , sat on the back of the boat
admiring the vertical walls of sea coming down on us and the way the boat
was riding up the face of the waves when we rose up a wave the crest grabbed
us as though we were a piece of flotsam and we took off
I looked behind down the trough a 20/30ft hole , I looked forward and
couldn't see anything apart from the top of the previous wave , the trough
was buried somewhere below the bow The keel bit , the boat did a little
shimmy of her hips and we hit 10 Knots for some mins not sure exactly how
long I was hanging on awesome as the young ones say today
It has been hard work but we are both proud of ourselves we have achieved
something to talk about a bore everybody for years to come thanks to you all
for your support and particularly the funnies we will publish them all on
the web

thanks especially to peter our weather and shore base Guru a tremendous job
Pete you should take it up professionally
Not a lot to add from me, the gale at the beginning of the passage will not
be forgotten in a hurry.It was very comfortable in the cabin below as the
wind and sea raged out side. But frequent glances at the wind recorded on
the instrument panel told another story.
Its been a tough trip at times but also very pleasant, as you will have
noted from the daily log.
Just one thing though. We held on in Hampton with the intention of sailing
at the same time at the Caribbean 1500. There is safety in numbers we
thought and they would have good weather information. WRONG! After the first
day we never saw or heard a pip from them on the VHF. In fact we could have
been the only boat in the Atlantic as the VHF remained silent. The e mails
we received via Sat phone were our only contact with the world. Thank you
for all the messages.

now arriving at the marinaG & J