Monday 11/24/08
As of 1300 on the 24th, Hakuna Matata has made 130 miles; only about 2700 to go..
Even though the winds are supposed to be light tonight we dropped the spinnaker at dusk and are sailing with the main at reef point one and genoa unfurled. Just before dusk we were joined by a large pod of about 30 bottlenose dolphins. They swam with the boat for about 15 minutes.
Ken and Gareth are on galley duty tonight and made a chicken and tomato concasse pasta dish. The pan got licked so folks enjoyed it.
As of 1930, we've done 150 miles. Good night all..
Tuesday 11/25/08
Winds were very light and variable through the night. We finally had to start the engines when our speed dropped to 1.3 knots. Seas are relatively calm. It's good for getting our sea legs, but we'd like to get a lot more wind.
Several large commercial ships passed within a couple of miles of us in the night. We are obviously in a shipping channel. Aside from these ships, we could see the masthead lights of about 10 other sailboats in the distance.
Tuesday morning dawned bright and sunny. Winds are still quite light. We really need at least 10 knots to move this heavy boat, and it may be another 150 miles south before we hit the primary trade winds and can really accelerate our speed.
We set 2 fishing lines today and got one strike, but lost the fish before we could get him to the boat. Most of us took a turn sunning on the bow today. We could see several boats on the horizon. By dark we had no boats within visual or radar within 10 miles. It's really amazing how quickly the fleet has spread out.
Gareth and Liz had galley duty today. They prepared chicken fajitas for lunch and a corned beef and potato casserole for dinner. We also cut into the huge Parma ham which is hanging in the head. We're eating very well.
All systems are working other than the one charger issue and the crew is doing well. We now have only 2,500 miles to St. Lucia.
Wed 11/26/08
Light winds again overnight. It is easy on crew but hard on the schedule. Each night there are fewer and fewer boats within radar range. We've looked at the weather projection which we receive via sat-phone and we are going to shift our course further east toward the African coast to take advantage of heavier winds in that area. We need to be about 150 miles further south before we pick up the primary westerly trades.
We raised the spinnaker at first light today to take advantage of its larger sail area.
About noon we sailed through a school of dorado/mahi-mahi. Two of them hit our lures and we landed them both. Gaffing them along side is harder than it looks. Each of the fish yielded about 2 lbs/1 kilo of fillets and we're currently cooking them up for lunch. It would be hard to have much fresher than 15 minutes from line to pan.
As of noon, we have 2,486 miles to St. Lucia.
All aboard are well and send their love to family and friends.
.Ken, Chris, Gareth, Liz & Graham