Adagio - Plenty of wind, just not in the right direction.

Here's where being a rookie at the Caribbean 1500 really begins to show. We've made a couple of good tactical decisions in our decisions to proceed to 30N/70W to avoid a building low pressure system, and we've done well in kinda-sorta guessing where some of the winds would be helpful skirtuing, but not engaging, some smaller squalls so far. But, we just don;t have the expertise to make the longer predictions, nor the familiarity with the way the different portions of the crossing will play out and we have found ourselves with unfavorable winds (or in some cases no wind at all). Not that we won;t eventually get to Tortola; that goal is in sight but it is certainly not to be the elegant ride on the prevailing tradewinds we'd hoped for.. This one has so far involved lots of engine hours and some tacking that pointed us at either Cuba or the Mediterranean. Not that those aren't options, but we have hopes to make the party an Nanny Cay so we'll press on as best we can.

At this writing, the fleet is widely spread out and it's easy to tell the boats and crews that have done this before. This is our first 1500, and our first crossing of any kind in a boat that is relatively new to us. We're learning a lot, and sorting stuff out, and most importantly building confidence and skills for later events. We'll see you at the finish line, whenever that ends up being.