Day 33 - Passage to the Caribbean
Misterx
Sun 4 May 2025 02:15
03/05/25
8:30 pm
Day 33
North Atlantic Ocean
DTD to Trinidad: 310 NM (108NM)
We had an exceptionally flat sea today. The wind is clocking between 8 and
10 knots, and our boat speed is now below 5, even with a bit of current
helping, and has been for most of the day. Nothing we can do about it, we
must be patient... we have as much sail up as we can, our makeshift wings
stayed up all night and all day. And of course as we are nearing the island,
we are seeing much more traffic, 2 big ships and 3 fishing vessels so far,
keeping us on our toes with their peculiar behaviour.
We'll soon be back into civilisation, and a cursory look into the mirror is
sufficient to make us realise that we might not be fit to re-join the human
race just yet! Ian especially has embraced his hirsuteness for the last
month or so, his hair is long and dishevelled so is his beard... Time for a
bit of grooming... So we turned Mr X into a barber... first step, the
hair... the clippers are coming out. It is a little bit dicey at time, when
a waves jolts my hand, but we manage to make a decent job of it in no time.
Next, the beard, a wet shave on the move, always entertaining... my job,
holding the mirror up and saying " you missed a bit there!" over and over.
Next, my favourite, chucking bucketful of water at him, despite his protest
that we couldn't spare the water for a shower... He is fibbing, any excuse
not to have a wash!!! with over 100 litres in jerry cans and probably the
same in the tank left, we have more than enough to spare a few litres for a
bit of a splash! Manicure and pedicure taken care of! Et voila! All clean, a dab of aftershave and he's done! My
turn next for a bit of a spruce up minus the haircut... the curls are here
to stay, even if they look like a bird's nest on top of my head!
The entertainment showed up around 3pm when a big pod of dolphins decided to
come and play in our bow wave. They stayed for a little while. I went and
perched on the foredeck to marvel at their speed an agility. We never tire
of watching them doing their thing. A last whistle and off they went. Think
they were bottle nose dolphins, they had the right appendage!
Interestingly enough, they didn't seem to be phased by the Sargasso
drifting. We had masses of it again today... Mr X entirely surrounded by
huge patches of swishing seaweed. We had to clear the wind vane rudder far
more than usual!
Sponge Bob Square Pants is still doing a sterling job every 4 hours, we are
taking on a little less water in the bilge for some reason, maybe going
slower has an impact on the amount of water leaking in...
Watching the miles go down... we're nearly there!
M