Skipper's Blog 7/12/10
Mandalay
Robin & Jenny Martin
Tue 7 Dec 2010 12:01
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At 0700hrs we had covered 2,088 miles since the start in
Las Palmas; we have already celebrated our half way mark with Gregg's champagne
and Tony's fruit cake, that's assuming we don't have anymore
duff weather or breakages.
We've got a thing going on the SSB Net thinking up
verses for the 12 Days of Christmas carol - our first day was a Chris Tibbs
weather forecast as a bit of a dig. Actually, he has surpassed himself with
better updates since the first edition about where the tradewinds could be
found.
I think we are on the edge of them now so showing signs
of progress with the spinnaker up this morning we are are averaging 7 knots but
overnight with twin head sails it was only 5 knots. We have 1,180 miles to go
and if we go in a straight line and average 5 knots we could be in St Lucia
before everybody go's home, that's 18th December. If we get stronger trade winds
it could be earlier.
We are all learning as we go and sailing quickly and
trying to make life on board as comfortable as possible is not easy. Jen's
fantastic meals are the highlight, curried tuna, chilli con tuna and spaghetti
tuna.
Tony's sail changes are down to 1 hour, a record this
morning, that's down twin head sails and poles, main up, and spinny up, quite an
improvement but no pretentions of Admirals Cup.
Really excellent to get the support from family and
friends back home especially Phillipa, Charlie, Lyndy and Ha and also our
newly made friends on other boats. There are some internal competitions
ahead with fellow cruisers no names, no pack drill, and we hope Maymio will step
up to the mark in the miles closing St Lucia. We are all in fantastic
form but we don't underestimate the challenges
ahead.
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