We have had a very frustrating 48 hours with little wind and sails flogging. Graham has taught us how to play poker with Monopoly money (his rules though) and this has kept our minds off the flappy cloth thing dangling limply off the bow. At 3am this morning we took the decision to drop the Big Fella and put the motor on with less than 4 knots of true wind we were bobbing at 1.5 knots for over two hours with no flow over the rudder. This is the kind of decision that Jez and I find very difficult and, I have to say, depressing not only because of our love of sailing but also that we are tight farmers.
We tried sailing again this morning when our wind increased from 2 to 6 knots, but that soon dropped again making sailing impossible. Three very unhappy bunnies!!
So to cheer us up, we decided on a swim as the boat was moving at under 1knot, and what a pleasant surprise. Warm, clear water, far warmer than the summer Med despite being over 4000 metres deep, and we are 1000 nautical miles from land! A surreal experience mid Atlantic with a gentle swell rolling us about under the morning sun.
Then back to reality, motor on, with a forecast showing several days of light or no wind we will not make it to St Lucia in time for Christmas! Another plus today to cheer us up, we caught another fish, twice the size of the last and will add two more meals to our rations now that Raymarine is telling us this morning we have 16 days to go (when we left Cape Verdes over 1000 miles ago it had told us 12 days to go!). But hey, that's sailing. To coin a phrase, it's not about the destination, it's all about the journey (mm, rubbish, I want my rum punch under that palm tree with white sand between my toes). 986 miles to go......and only ingredients for one more batch of choccie brownies...OMG:-(
Susie (hello sis)