22:06.526N 007:19.966W Back On Track.
Shaya Moya
Don & Susan Smyth
Mon 18 Apr 2011 14:54
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Monday 18th April 10:39
Todays is the forth day on passage to Cuba
from Puerto Rico and I've finally managed to catch up on the blog. I know
it's not fantastic work but i was rushed to catch up. I promise to try harder
now that its almost live reporting.
We've sailed 690nm already and it's been pretty
much smooth sailing so far with an average speed of just ove 7.5kts. The watch
system has been working well and we're both feeling great. Our bio-clocks have
adjusted well to the 3 hours of sleep every 3-4 hours and we're also finding
time to do the little odd jobs around the boat. In fact D is doing the laundry
has i'm typing this.
I've been doing alot of fishing and had some really
big boys on the hook. Unfortunately one got off the hook and the other
got off with the hook, we were probably better off not catching that one.
Judging by the size of him when he breached about 100m behind the boat we would
have had seriuos issues trying to get him on deck. This is no fishing story...
he was atleast 5-6ft.
This morning i put another lure out so we're hoping
for a fish 'n chip dinner.
Back to the sailing... We've been sailing with the
spinnaker for most of the way now. We're also leaving her up overnight. Now that
I've got the tangle out of her she's very easy to work with. The spinnaker has
even agreed to a new method we're using to snuff (put her away in her sleeping
bag) her, it's faster and easier so we can take her down through squalls (small
storms) and have her up in a jiffy as we pass through.
The weather... We think we've identified a weather
pattern since we crossed the Mona Passage ( between Puerto Rico and Dominican
Rep). The wind generaly picks up in the afternoon and stays around 15kts E
till early morning. This has been the time when we've made the best progress and
haven't used the motor much. As the sun rises, the wind veers south and dies out
a little, so we've had to motor to keep speed and get to Cuba on
time. Our ladies will be waiting.
So thats it for now.
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