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Voyageur - Log day 263 - Sailing into the sunshine.....



18 March 2011

What a difference a day makes. Voyageur is tearing along at a rate of knots. We have had the most fantastic twenty four hours of fast exciting sailing, achieving a 200nm daily run! The day augured well. A liquid moon slowly slid down a western sky finally setting at 5am. Half an hour later a watery sun burst upon the horizon to the east. It was a beautiful sight. Dolphins arrive and perform their early morning aerobics show for us. We call to them and they respond in kind. They sing to us. Oh, it feels so good to be out here. The ocean blue once more, is reflected from a clear blue sky. It really feels and looks like we are heading into the Caribbean Sea.

Five degrees north appears on the log sheet. It is like a magic number. We have literally sailed out into the sunshine after eight hard days sailing. We have a lovely beam reach about force five and are bowling along under full canvas, up to one and half knots of current surging us forward. In the evening I made my peace with the ocean. I was so happy with it all. It is at moments like this that I know why I am out here, why I am doing this. Now that we are not in the race I feel a great freedom knowing that our every position, our every move is not being closely scrutinised every step of the day.

Huge ships pass us coming around the corner of Venezuela, one a massive 333metres in length. Obviously they are on their way to and from the Panama Canal. Graham updates us with the latest news of Basia. Their morale is good. The big blow that we had the previous day passed through their little fleet during the night and thankfully they came through it without incident. Ariane and Jeannius have now rendezvoused with the group for a planned fuel transfer tomorrow. That will give them enough to motor the rest of the way to Grenada.

Susan Mackay


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