Wednesday May 6th,  2015

Conception Island 23 50.70N 75 07.52W

Today's Blog by David  (Time zone: BST -5.0; UTC -4.0)

Phew!  We made it!  What was supposed to be a gentle overnight passage from Mayaguana proved to be an epic struggle with the elements. 

Up promptly for  another 2.8 NM  dinghy ride into Mayaguana to get a few SIM Cards -  so we could keep going with data - and the election and all that – and then we  came on deck to raise the anchor only to be sent scurrying below by a squall with 40+ knots under it. It passed in 10 minutes so we were soon able to get going.

Continued squally, convection activity during the day gave rise to electrical activity that night.  Terry and I were engulfed by a large thunderstorm.  Electrical discharges can trash electronic equipment – of which we rely upon quite a lot! - and so we spent several hours trying to find our way out of the storm  as quickly as possible.  Whichever way we turned, however, the storm seemed to follow us around!  Eventually, we emerged from it  as it blew through us and the sky cleared. 

Fortunately our systems were unscathed – all systems operational – but the sailing /motoring around in circles put us well behind the clock and potentially put our landfall in daylight at risk.  Fortunately the weather was kinder in the day and a brisk wind took us towards out destination – Conception Island.

Conception is a nature reserve – i.e. it is reserved for use by nature.   It is beautiful and it is pristine but we saw no nature , no wild life, no birds  and scant aquatic life in the two days we stopped there but it WAS beautiful.

We had it pretty much to ourselves!