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Golondrina - Wednesday



Evening sports fans .. Have been told to do a serious blog!

 

As you may have seen Golondrina left Cape Verde Islands on Sunday morning and currently heading due west.  From this point the boys are about a fifth of the way to St Lucia with 1570 miles to go.  So far because of the non-existent trade winds and the deviation they had to make in the initial part of the trip they have already clocked up 1600 miles.    From Las Palmas to St Lucia the direct distance is  2760 miles so when the crew reach 1380 to go (probably tomorrow) we are half way and on the home straight.

Yesterday we reached a point where we picked up the Trade Winds, although at the moment they are relatively light about 10kts mainly from the NE or East - we could do with about another 5-6 knots but that has allowed us to fly a very large Yellow Spinnaker and we appear to be making good going nearly a constant 7.5 knots of speed.

 

We are heading to another waypoint which is some  550 miles away (about 3days). The reason we are heading there is there is currently a band of squalls running for the next few days to the north of us so we are trying to avoid those and when we reach the waypoint we can head up onto the wind giving us a better point of sail increasing the apparent wind speed and we should ( may regret that later ) scream up to St Lucia in time for tea and medals.

 

The ultimate ETA will be either the 14th or 13th - if we can keep the current pace up. Our forward command post reports that we have made good progress in the past few days with plenty of boats behind . Yesterday we overtook 2 boats  another was 145 miles in front on Sunday is now only 61 miles away - which is great news.

 

Food is good -although we only have green apples, oranges, carrots, tomatoes and lemons left in terms of fresh veg now. Fishing has dropped off and Mark lost the battle with a tuna yesterday.

 

During the day it's at least 30 degrees if not hotter and brilliant sunshine and clear skies.  The decks are impossible to stand on and there's a general fight for shade to keep cool

 

The one thing that stands out here is that the Atlantic is big! we went 2 days without seeing another vessel. Every morning, afternoon and evening the view is the same. We are currently with moonlight as a new moon phase begins - so the last few days at night have been bible black - to use a phrase from a famous welsh poet.  it is very hard to see where the sea becomes the sky even with the stars.

 

So at 1800 British time today we have 1570 to go..

 

 

And for "things you regret now saying on board"....

 

"It's in the dark black bag" (DH)

"The ETA will drop as we get closer" (SD)

"There's no wind but at least the other yachts are in the same boat"

"The Sat phone is for everyone to contact friends and family, I suppose you won't need it a lot Dave"

"The Azores high is currently over Ireland" (Chris Tibbs)

And finally for you yacht racers -  "The course is as follows . Start between committee boat and buoy, take las Palmas to starboard. Take St Lucia to port, finish between committee boat and buoy.  Race course distance 3000 miles"



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