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DreamCatcher - DreamCatcher 2nd Leg- Day 4



Good morning from the lovely yacht Dreamcatcher! As we are sending this through to you we are just passing the first quarter mark at 1575 miles to go to St. Lucia, and we are hoping that the remaining miles will be as pleasant and enjoyable as the first have been. The past few days swept by with ease; as the crew and skipper have been settling in to the rhythms of the watch system, the weather has obliged by remaining relatively calm, with periods of excitement to keep things interesting and keep us on our toes.

As the days flow by and the wind speed varies, the yachts have spread out considerably. Although we have been able to maintain a fairly steady speed - despite sometime inconsistent wind direction and velocity - by changing or adjusting our sail plan or configuration, we have fallen behind some of the other monohulls. But not to worry, with 1575 miles to go, we haven't been beaten yet. We have remained fortunate to not have any major problems thus far, and that the minor problems have been noticed and dealt with due to the diligence of the skipper and crew.

Everyone has been adapting to the routine of the watch system well and all are in good spirits. Each passing day adds to the collective knowledge and skill of handling Dreamcatcher and to the confidence of the crew for the remainder of the voyage. The highlight of the day is often suppertime, when two crew members work together (most of the time) to create the culinary masterpiece of the day. We started off the trip with a creamy chicken dish over potatoes and cauliflower from Maggie, followed by sweet chili pork over rice the night before last by Edd and Josh, and stir fried spicy beef with a creamy lemon avocado sauce last night courtesy of David and James, which was voted by at least one crew member to be the favorite dish of the trip thus far.

The weather has bee quite cooperative for the galley men and woman, with the highest gust so far reaching only 21 knots during a quick squall. At times the winds have been fairly light, and the variations caused by different systems have been cause to change the sail plan several times, switching between Pandora with a pinned, reefed main and the white sails with or without a reef or two in the mainsail. The wind has started to become more steady as we continuously gain distance from the Cape Verdes and pick up the tradewinds, but there are constantly cloud on the horizon which occasionally bring small squalls and different wind directions.

These changes can certainly make things interesting, as they did twice this morning. Just as dawn broke, a raincloud passed over Dreamcatcher, bringing a steady rain that was just starting to taper off when the clicker on our trolling gear started whirring at an alarming speed. James quickly grabbed the pole and spent the next twenty minutes battling a beautiful three foot bull Mahi Mahi, a sight to see in electric blue and yellow against the pallette of pinks and purples of the Atlantic at sunrise. Unfortunately, the fish was lost in the excitement of getting it into the cockpit, forever to be known as the one that got away... A few short hours later a passing wind gust on the back of a cloud warped the wind direction around about thirty degrees and maneuvered the clue of Pandora over and around itself, a problem that was deftly remedied by Edd, awoken out of his slumber via telepathic message from Martin at just the right moment to get the sail socked and untwisted.

But more often than not the clouds have been nothing more than lovely gaseous sculptures and striking abstract canvases for the colors of the sunrise and sunset. We hope that they remain so benign as we charge forth into the remaining 3/4 of the journey, huzzah!



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