22 March 2011
It is quite extraordinary how different the earlier part of this passage has differed from the latter. From close reaching in strong winds, driving rain and rough seas for eight consecutive days, we now find ourselves enjoying downwind sailing, with poled out genoa, in sparkling sunshine and flat seas. Last night was beautiful. The moon cast its liquid silver path in our wake. I could have willingly stayed on watch all night. But how could I deprive David of the magic and did I really want to deprive myself of that much needed rest. I do now feel that I have been on a long voyage. One week ago I thought I had finally got long distance sailing out of my system but now, after the night we have just had, well, I am just not so sure. The ocean is a place where you can get really close to nature. At dawn today a black noddy settled on the weather rail. He rocked to and fro, to and fro, balancing like a ballet dancer at the barre and in perfect timing to Voyageur's gentle roll. It was comical to watch. Suddenly he takes flight in search of breakfast, which reminds me that I am a little hungry too. Time to wake David from his slumbers and get the breakfast on....
"Spirit of the Rally"
The convoy continues to make steady progress. Yesterday poor Jeannius however have torn their mainsail and are struggling to keep up. All their spare fuel has gone to Basia so they are unable to motor to keep up, but by evening we hear that they have successfully jury rigged the sail and are going well once more. Today Michael will do a fuel assessment in order to establish if they can increase the engine revs. Basia have had throughout the past week the most tremendous support from the boats around them to assist them in reaching their final destination in safety. What would have been the outcome for them if they had been on their own I wonder. Abandonment of their "home". We will never know, but what is a certainty is that without a sail to jury rig the boat they would not have made it all the way to Grenada without the help and support of the other World ARC boats that have come so willingly to their rescue. They have demonstrated the true "spirit of the rally" and David and I applaud their fantastic achievement....
Goodbye my ocean....
We are 35nm from the north east tip of Tobago, sailing dead downwind in a lovely 20knot breeze. Ahead dark clouds foretell rain and but behind us blue sky peeks through broken cloud, one occasion when it is better to look back than forward. With such reduced visibility it is unlikely we will catch a glimpse of the island. The looking forward is for the next twenty four hours for land is now just 140nm away. Today and tonight will be our final time on the ocean for tomorrow we will be in the Caribbean Sea. The lead boats of Crazy Horse, Ocean Jasper, A lady and Lady Lisa are already there with Thor 1V, lady Ev 1V, Chessie and Tzigane arriving during the night. We have sailed almost all of this long leg and are particularly pleased to have used so few engine hours. Somehow we always managed to keep the wind with us and where the Guyana Current left off, the South Equatorial Current took over pushing us nicely along and bringing our predicted 16 day passage forward by two whole days. Who knows when we will be back upon the ocean, but I suspect it will not be too long before it calls to us once more. Last night I fell in love with it all over again. But for now the lure of landfall courses strongly through our veins and come dawn tomorrow we will be rewarded with our first sight of land since leaving Brazil, the dark outline of the high mountains of Grenada.
Susan Mackay