Rebel - The end in sight - almost

Thursday 18 Dec.

Finally! No, we haven't reached St. Lucia nor do we have good wind. Over
night a flying fish landed in the cockpit and, because it is a tradition,
Iain fried it up for breakfast. Very tasty indeed.

It's not very much like Christmas out here. We forgot to bring a tree or
decorations. We'll be interested to see what signs there will be of
Christmas in St. Lucia. And while it will be good to get home for the
holidays, there is definitely something to be said for the weather down
here.

We're closing in on 200 miles to go and will reach that point in a few
hours. Not that I'm counting, but earlier today we passed 29/32nds of the
way and the next big waypoint after 200 to go will be 15/16ths. Barbados
is closer still, but St. Lucia it will be for us. Yesterday we saw our
first frigate bird, a sure sign we are nearing land. Unless there is some
late change in wind strength, something we would certainly welcome, we'll
reach St. Lucia Saturday, perhaps around noon or early afternoon. We will
have sailed 2866 or so miles and, again unless there is some surprise for
us not mentioned in the weather report, we will have had absolutely no
strong winds or rough seas. It has been no more boisterous at it's
strongest than a typical summer afternoon on Buzzard's Bay. We had a long
radio conversation this morning with Yara, a boat that expected to finish
the rally a few hours later, about the weather they have had. Being two
days ahead of us put them in some surprisingly different conditions. They
went through squalls with winds up to 45 knots in gusts, and sustained
winds 30 to 35. By contrast, the highest winds we have seen have been
around 25 knots. That helps explain our slow crossing.

Not surprisingly, the days run together in our minds. We forget the date
and the day of the week, and forget how many days we've been sailing.
While it might seem the scenery never changes, in fact there is a lot of
variation and it is always warm and almost always beautiful. We've had
very little time with cloud cover. We do wish we could get in a least one
or two days of the promised trade winds sailing - NE 15 to 20 knots - but
it just doesn't seem that it will happen. Our prediction is that the
typical trade winds will settle in one hour after we tie up in Rodney Bay.
Had we had the average winds, we would have arrived by now.

We're hoping that some of those on boats we have become familiar with over
the radio will still be in Rodney Bay when we arrive so we can thank them
for their assistance and talk about the crossing. Then it's back to work
and winter. I'm going to miss this.

Andy




Friday 19th

AT LAST AT LAST AT LAST!!!!

WIND !!!!!

Last night at 2200 UTC the wind arrived and we have been sailing 6-7 knots
ever since on a beam reach. From 8pm to 8am local time we sailed 73 miles
? on 26th November we sailed 79 miles in 24 hours.. so today we are
smiling.

The day before yesterday, while languishing in 5 kts of wind from the
stern, we saw a frigate bird, our first sign of approaching landfall with
Barbados 250 mile off the port bow. This morning with now less than 100
miles to go we have seen several birds fishing by the boat, quite
different from the mid ocean birds.

Well what a difference it makes to be really moving. This wind should
hold true til Rodney Bay where our ETA is now 0700 UTC tomorrow, 0300
local time. Andy might catch his flight home after all.


Why sail all the way from Las Palmas to St Lucia just to fly to Boston as
soon as you arrive??..you may well ask ? but don?t !!


Iain