Well it is a bit of a cliche to say that the sting  is in the tail but this was certainly true for the passage we have just made.  For the last day we had tried to slow Nordlys down to absorb some of the time before dawn on Tuesday.  This resulted in a very jerky motion and combined with lots of squalls a miserable days sailing.  Night came down and we were only thirty miles from our destination.  With the onset of darkness the squalls redoubled their energy and we had an endless series of downpours combined with little if any visibility and up to 45 knots of wind.  Great conditions to be approaching a totally unlit island at the end of a long passage.  On top of this our radar decided now was the time to pack up.

Since the two charts we had showed differing lat/long figures for the island we gave the southern tip a wide berth and then spent three hours motoring back and forth in the lee of the island.  As there was no wind here we could not satisfactorily heave to so the batteries got well charged.  With first light we found our way through a heavy downpour and thirty knots of wind into one of the most spectacular anchorages we have ever visited.  After some time we managed to anchor in 20 meters amongst a dozen other boats.  A stiff drink  and we all went to sleep and several hours later I am writing this before we are due to depart ashore for dinner with all the other yachties.  A New Zealand couple who got in a day before us came by with freshly baked bread  and life is fast settling into a pleasant whirl. 

Nordlys covered a couple of miles short of three thousand and took exactly seventeen days to do it.  If darkness had not caused us to delay we would have taken sixteen days, eighteen hours.  The motor was used for thirty seven hours, or one hundred and seventy miles, during the first three days out. Our stern counter is covered in goose barnacles that are the very devil to remove but I am told fall off in three days if out of the water.

Happy times to you all from three people who are really going to enjoy a full nights horizontal rest !

David Annette and Christabel 

 

Goose Barnacles after 3000nm

 

 

We know it has rain, does it have wind?