Alize's Web Diary - 27th Nov to 14th Dec- Pictures Las Palmas to St Lucia

27th Nov to 14th Dec- Pictures Las Palmas to St Lucia

Alize

Mike Somerville

Sun 16 Dec 2012 05:38

14:04.521N 60:57.014W

We arrived in St Lucia safely at 4:10am local time yesterday to be greeted on the dock by Mike S's daughter Ali & her friend Caroline with a super "Welcome" banner, and by Mike L's friend Rolie Lennox King with the rum punch welcome team.

So, here are the snaps we have selected to try and capture the last 17 days amazing experience...

On the starting line at Las Palmas - Mike S concentrating on getting us away in a good position and safely with so many boats!

Mike L pleased at the good start - yes all those boats you can see are already behind us!

Fixing the genset water pump and the autopilot meant Mike L spent some time in the stern locker!

When we started sea water dish washing parties, an unexpected roll meant Mike got wet pants from the outside!

Tim was busy deep sea fishing...

and then he caught something BIG at dusk... this action shot shows Barbara, Mike L and Tim fighting the monster fish...

On one night watch, Mike S was a bit surprised when a wave broke over the cockpit and activated his lifejacket - Barbara is still laughing...

Flying fish kept us entertained day and night - Tim here shows their amazing wingspan before throwing this one back

We saw very few other boats after the first few days. This 50 foot catamaran came closest and should have been miles ahead of us...

Then we had the surprise visit of Sint and Peit and his special gifts in our shoes left out overnight

We had seawater showers / water fight parties...

and when it rained, we were able to have freshwater showers too - and fill the water tanks:

The rain squalls became a regular feature - we had more than we expected.. this radar screen shows one squall in which were stuck for quite a while. It was about the size of the Isle of Wight...

This squall just missed us - just look at that rain under the spectacular clouds. The wind typically rises by 10 knots within each squall.

One day we had an unexpected guest - an egret. It flew by very close...

and decided to rest on our deck for a few hours when there was no wind and we were motoring

on that same day we saw some other wild life - two huge whales passed a little way off

so we decided to have a swim - in the middle of the Atlantic only four miles from nearest land - below us!

It was great....

a stunning experience - in lovely warm water, bright blue and crystal clear

we all had great fun!

We ate very very well. Whilst we all did some cooking, Tim took the lead with lots of creatve dishes

There were many very wet days..

Down below the crew kept busy... writing blogs..

and watching movies - Pirates of the Caribean of course...

When the weather improved - we had several "wash days"..

and fought to prevent 'chafe' of our sails and rigging. Mike S is holding a length of special plastic tube for the guard rails to minimise wear where the jib sheet passed over it.

we also had other problems....the loss of all our spoons from our seawater washing prototype (washing up bowl) prompted us to improvise with alternative designs...