Daily Run 220nm
DTT 190nm
Lunch Chorizo couscous with Tomato and Peppers
Dinner Fish Pie with Carrots and Peppers
I am pleased to report that during the day today, the conditions have moderated and life aboard Northern Child is once again back to just a fast pace, rather than blazing a trail. Mind you, no one is complaining as putting in some good miles early is always nice.
Although we are only in day 2, I can see the crew starting to settle into a pattern and life aboard. Those that were feeling a little frail, are gradually coming to life and the wine at happy hour certainly caused some cheer. The dinners so far have been lovingly prepared by Lucy in Las Palmas and at dinner time there has been much praise by the crew; umm, yum, excellent.... Tim and I are starting to get a little nervous about Lucy's pre-prepared meals running out and having to rely on delivering such a high standard. However, Lucy has left us meal plans, a well organised and documented food inventory and if all else fails, some very tasty pasta sauces :-)
We undertook some big sail configuration changes today. The task was to hoist the no4 genoa alongside the no2. This required furling away the no2, lowering the pole, then unfurling and dropping the no2, before adding the no4 and re-hoisting both. This may sound failry straightforward, but with Northern Child still rolling around and surfing along at 9 knots, trust me, it is quite an exercise. One that was very worthwhile though, increasing our speed by 0.5 to 1 knot which will be the thing that sets us apart from the other boats and sees us being one of the early boats into St Lucia.
We can see a few other boats on the horizon around us, both by day and night. According to the results, we are currently 14th overall in cruising division and 2nd in Division B. Nice to know we are doing well, but I'm not really thinking much about competition at this stage, more about making sure the crew are settled, interpreting the weather forecasts carefully and just making good daily progress. That is not to say however, that we won't start thinking about the spoils of victory a little later on.
By late afternoon, with double headsail and full main, the wind has started to increase and the sea become a little more predictable in direction. This has led to some more great surfing speeds and good progress along the Rhumb line to St Lucia. The Rhumb line is the straight line route and quickest route, weather permitting to get from the Canaries to the Caribbean. Right now and for the next few days, it looks to me based on our weather downloads that the best Trade Winds will be on this more Northerly route, rather than the Southerly one. So for now, we are sticking very close to the Rhumb line, making good speed and making good friends.
Christian, Tim and crew.