The Home Straight
Yacht Ariel
Henry Adams
Sat 15 Dec 2007 19:57
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Position: 15:43N, 58:02W
(That's right, only about 180 miles to
go)
Well,
We're nearly in and emotions are running high
(well, in a manly way - we're excited - we're not crying or anything). However,
I have become thoroughly versed in the workings of hubris, after my last entry
and will satisfy myself with saying that we are both now determined to finish as
soon as possible.
I only mention hubris, as it seems fitting, giving
the weather conditions we have suffered, since my last, rather gloating update
was passed. I mentioned that the squalls we had suffered were mercifully short
and we had had little torrential rain - I take it back, I take it all back. It
has been raining for about the last 48 hours, showing us sunshine fleetingly
then cruelly snatching it away to replace it with black clouds and more heavy
rain - once again, we are wet. The brochures for the tropics would be rather
different (and, I fancy, rather less enticing) were they to include the true
nature of the weather and the rain. It is wet, wet, rain. Once again I feel I
have been slightly cheated by the skipper in terms of what type of weather we
could expect; when I asked him what this would be, he said typical tropical
weather. To my mind, unversed in the workings of international meteology, this
sounded great - now I feel grossly deceived.
Anyway, apart from the rain, our progress has been
incredible (average over 150 miles/day over the last few days) and this has
served to slightly dry our spirits, if not our waterproofs. On this subject, if
anyone in St Lucia has some waterproofs they are trying to sell, please contact
Henry Adams on 'Ariel'. His 'waterproof' jacket has reached such a state that
the only thing it keeps out is a nice breeze to make the dampness more
comfortable. In a heavy squall, I reckon he would actually be better to take it
off and go bare-backed as, at least in this way he would dry off quicker.
Samaritan that I am I have taken to lending him my jacket, but this cannot go
on, as I don't like sharing anything and it feels uncomfortable to be nice to
the skipper.
Angling fans will not be disappointed by our
consistency - we still haven't caught anything since Fishing Day 1, but I did
see a buoy floating past yesterday, attached to a buch of rope which I tried to
snag, but alas, even that eluded me. Whale Watch has still borne no visual fruit
to my relief and I vote that we now shift to Shark Watch, as I feel there will
be more of these in the Caribbean than whales.
We are aiming to get in before midnight local time
tomorrow (which is four hours behind UK) and may take the oppurtunity over the
following days to let our hair down, so please do not fret if entries appear to
have dried up, they will continue until at least February, when I leave the boat
(the skipper will probably be too lazy to continue, but his journalistic skille
have always been a bit inferior anyway, so what loss?).
A special treat tonight, as we hope it will be our
last at sea for quite some while - we are going to spend the last of our battery
watching a film, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, fittingly enough. As if this were
not adequate reason for celbration, we are also going to be eating tinned pies
for supper - life at sea rarely has been this fantastic.
Anyway, bye for now and will update soon on Ariel's
(well, the crew's) adventures on St Lucia and in Rodney Bay.
Lots love
Foshy
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