12:57N 58:59W

daily run 155;  miles to go to Barbados 33....just a few hours now!

 

Why is it that the best always comes last?  We’ve just had our best sailing of the entire passage and we’re nearly there!  Yesterday, once those nasty squalls disappeared, dawned fine and clear and, after we dried ourselves and the cockpit cushions out, we sat up having breakfast just soaking up the glorious sun.  The wind stayed consistent all day – 18-20knots from behind and the seas slowly settled and became much more gentle.  Still big swells but much better spaced and nowhere near as confused as they had been – just magic!  Our last night of watches was stunning – a starry night with lots of shooting stars and the wind stayed true all night.  We realised the world was still turning out there when we saw planes....having not seen any the entire trip. 

 

As I write this at 1400UTC, we can almost see Barbados (well we can see the cloud build-up...does that count?) and the relief is enormous – the GPS works after all!  We’re feeling pretty chuffed at having successfully sailed across the Atlantic on our own and are thrilled with how Bandit has looked after us – what a boat.  The trip was not without its moments...the two memorable being our rough Christmas Day when we spilt food and broke crockery (ah we were sick of it anyway) and the night we had to hand steer when our autopilot (Zak) died.  The rolly days have been tiresome and we’re both pretty bruised from constantly banging ourselves or bracing against some hard surface to hang on.

 

But back to the movie title; what on earth has Shrek to do with sailing you ask?  Absolutely nothing....but there is that wonderful line – “are we there yet?” spoken, continually if I remember rightly, by donkey (was it Eddie Murphy or Will Smith?) all the way to the land of Farfaraway .  With land almost in sight....so exciting after 14 days of nothing....we’ve both started annoying each other by repeating it.  I know, I know....childish....but we’ve been on a boat for 14 days – humour us!  I think if we’d started saying it any earlier there would have been a mutiny on board (that would have at least taken care of the movie title...Mutiny on the Bounty), but given that in just a few hours we will be dropping anchor in Carlisle Bay, Barbados, we feel entitled to tease one another a bit. 

 

We still have a few miles to run but are counting our blessings that our passage, so far, has been safe, if rolly and uncomfortable.  Others on our SSB radio check in have not fared so well.  One boat lost its rudder midway across – how on earth they stayed so calm and positive beats us, full marks to them.  Yesterday, another of our group who left the Canary Islands was forced to turn back for the skipper to receive medical attention.  A few other boats have reported medical problems but they’ve managed to get them under control and keep sailing.   The boats that left a few days after us have only just sailed into slightly kinder conditions after getting a hammering for the first half of their trip.  Another in our group blew out a genoa, one flooded the galley when (unbeknown to them) a bowl went flying in a big wave and jammed under the tap and yet another has generator problems and is unable to charge its start battery.  We feel pretty lucky to have come through relatively unscathed.....there’s just a big pile of washing and a bit of tidying up to do, especially up on deck.

 

Biggest thrill for cook was not running out of anything. We only finished the bananas the day before yesterday and well before we got hit by the squally weather, so there goes that myth out the window. Some sailors refuse to take bananas on board as they are perceived as being bad luck. We ignore it.....maybe to our peril, but need our morning fix of bananas with cereal! Tomatoes lasted the entire trip as did zucchini, cucumber, oranges, apples, potatoes, onions, cabbage (what on earth do I do with cabbage?? Cabbage risotto just doesn’t have a good ring about it!). We had the last of our (second) Christmas cake with coffee this morning, having knocked off the banana cake and apricot slice. The skipper’s fresh bread went down a treat each day but his fishing skills slipped towards the end of the trip. The lure is out in anticipation of a last minute catch.

 

Our plan for the rest of today is this.  Get to the anchorage, drop anchor, have a huge celebratory drink and then sleep, sleep, sleep.  It will be bliss to sleep in our cabin again.  The single berth in the twin cabin has been a godsend in the dreadful rolling – but oh for the space and comfort and 800thread count Egyptian cotton sheets of our own bed!  Tomorrow, once refreshed, we’ll go ashore and see if our legs still work.  We may even find time for some snorkelling!  There is one Kiwi boat in the anchorage – Tuatara – and we look forward to catching up with Alan and Jean.  The big party will happen when fellow Kiwis Balvenie arrive in a few days – we promise not to drink all the rum guys!

 

Thanks for putting up with our mid Atlantic raves.  Getting feedback about the blog has been encouraging and forced us to write it, even on those rolly days when sitting in front of a computer is not much fun. And getting your emails has been absolutely wonderful.  We’ll do another blog tomorrow documenting our arrival and then might take a break and concentrate on sampling what Barbados does best – Mount Gay rum!