It was another lovely warm sunny day in the Atlantic. This also meant little or no wind once again.  The previous days run was 96NM. Slow but better than being becalmed again! The latest GRIB file downloaded tonight indicates that we will be enjoying winds from the East to NE between 8 and 14 knots for the next 4 days.  So the slow boat to Antigua continues….621 NM to go to the main waypoint off the south coast of Antigua. So it looks like it will now be next Tuesday (at the earliest) before we arrive in Jolly Harbour.

The freezer has packed up and we are now having our meal schedule dictated by what has been defrosted! We have managed to put some of the more precious items in the freezer compartment in the fridge, so it’s not a complete catastrophe!! Especially as I will be getting Fish Fingers for lunch tomorrow………

The only bit of entertainment today was that I managed to catch our first ever Wahoo. Stunning looking fish and it put up a good fight. It took about 15 minutes to get him to the transom.

These fish have vicious jaws and Barracuda like teeth and are to be treated with great caution. It was around two and a half feet long. Crew advised that we had plenty of food on board (this was after the freezer died), and so I took the hint, and released the fish. Tired and a little damaged, but hopefully well enough to survive.

We are back to downwind sailing on the Goose Wing Rig. Not the fastest point of sail for a Contest 48CS and certainly not the most comfortable. But we are managing to sail the rhumb line and that has to be a whole lot better than tacking downwind.

The first boat in the fleet to arrive in Antigua was Heidenskip. The 65 foot Dutch flying machine that I helmed in the race in Puerto Calero. 18 days for the journey, which given the conditions was a superb result.  The last boat in our floating village only left Puerto Calero today, having been waiting for three weeks to get the compressor installed for their air-conditioning. This will almost certainly mean they will be spending Christmas day at sea. So on that basis we should count our blessings………….