Good progress today. The jib was poled out overnight. We steered to the
light of the new crescent moon before it and neighboring Venus set around
midnight. Then nothing but blackness until dawn at 6.30 am. .We have adjusted
the ship’s clock to more nearly reflect local time so we are now GMT –
2. The spinnaker is hoisted at first light – the pattern of
the last several days. And then an easterly of about 15 knots propels us
directly toward St Lucia at 6-8 knots. It has been sweltering. A sprinkle of
rain this morning was welcome relief.
Rations are holding up and we are still eating well, although the
proportion of fresh food is diminishing rapidly. We still have half a head of
cabbage, some onions and a few eggs.
So, when are we going to get there. We have yet to rendezvous with the
elusive trade winds and are just capitalizing on some local wind spun out from
weather systems to our north. The point is that such wind could be any strength
and direction and cannot be relied upon to carry us to our destination. There is
always the danger of a ‘wind hole’ emerging behind a passing low pressure
system. Only when we get to the trade winds can we be assured of a consistent
conveyor belt to carry us to St Lucia. That conveyor may be still 3-4 days away.
If we carry on making 5 knots (or 120 nautical miles a day) then worst case
we’ll be in by Dec 17 at 8 pm. Ratchet this up to an average of 7 knots and we
will be sipping the Mount Gay Rum on December 14 at 10 pm. So that is probably
the arrival window..
To those of you following us on the tracker ‘yellow brick road’ please note
our boat name is ‘Great Escape of Southampton’ , not to be confused with ‘Great
Escape’ which is a separate boat, also in the rally but about 400 miles behind
us.
A message to Rosemary. Thank you for the ‘I miss you’ note
buried deep in my duffel. Miss you too. XOX.
We have a ton of photographs on the boat computer which we will all want to
transfer to memory sticks before leaving. Rosemary, would you please do us a
favor and purchase six USB memory sticks from Radio Shack, each of at least 8 GB
capacity, and bring them to St Lucia. We all appreciate it.
Jan
