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Hada - HADA Day 14 — Sunday December 8, 2013 15h39 UTC-2



Greetings to all.  Ed here, sitting’ in as guest editor of the Hada TransAtlantic Blog. Thanks Andre for the invitation to scribble some notes.

Not a lot to report:  Day is beautiful, but very hot and made more so by light winds.  Expecting some NE breezes to fill in soon, which we count on to be the traditional strong E-NE trades needed to bring us home to St Lucia.

Had a couple of nibbles on the fishing lines yesterday, but nothing to bring onboard for dinner.  So for lunch had a salad with canned tuna.

Big excitement yesterday was a broken turning block at the top of the mast, which held the spinnaker halyard.  Needed to be replaced, so sticking with tradition we loaded the lightest guy onboard, who in this case was Anton, into the bosun’s chair and hoisted him up some 74 feet to the top of the mast.  Apparently the view from there was spectacular, 360 degrees, 50 miles around of sea, clouds and sky.  Much better than from the deck, with our limited 6 miles around of sea, clouds and sky.

Striking these days, middle of these thousands of miles of ocean, crossing paths with other sailboats.  Not all of them part of the ARC, but more or less all headed for the Caribbean.  One headed from France to Martinique.  Exchanging fishing tips with another.

During these quiet days, occupy ourselves with small repairs, cooking good meals, and trying to make the boat go even a few tenths of a knot faster in the direction of St Lucia.  A shared bottle of good Cava at dinner makes all seem right.

Ghosting along here in the tropics, touched by crossing the Atlantic using the very same trade winds and the same route, if certainly not the same technology, as mariners did hundreds of years ago. Reading books onboard with subjects as diverse as 17th century colonists, or today’s economies of Europe and America, and the impacts today of all of that history, we have a renewed feeling of being a part of the timeless rhythms of the sea.  Hemingway’s classic Old Man and the Sea seems particularly appropriate.

We have about 1150 miles to go to St Lucia.  Looking forward to a good rum drink and then to continue on to family and friends.

Ed
for the entire crew of S/V Hada in the
Mid Atlantic, at 13 degrees 9.59 minutes North, 41 degrees, 8.49 minutes West


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