Cochise - more of the same
day 15. More of the same!
Yesterday evening sundown was celebrated with the ususal beverages and to the tunes of Bob Dylan courtesy of Sam as ever. There was a nice sunset, and after a good curry we all felt settled for a steady moon and star lit night of sailing.
By 11.00pm ominous clouds were coming over the horizon, and 10 minutes later the deluge began....and finally abated at midday today. Yuk!
Under the clouds the wind was incredibly variable and over the past 12 hours we have gybed and reset the sails as though we are doing a sunday afternon dinghy race. The frustrating thing has been that as soon as we have the sails set on one side, the wind shifts back to where it was ( once via a 360deg loop!). Since lunchtime we have had better winds and set the spin for a couple of hours and flew along nicely, although we have now gybed back again and are on a good course for St Lucia.
We covered 150 slightly zig-zag miles in the past 24 hours and our distance to go is down to 340M. At one stage yesterday, the third placed boat had closed to 5 miles behind us, but it now looks as though our hard work in the shifts is paying off and at the last fix, we had extended this to 19 miles.
The crew are well, and I can hear them in the cockpit practicing Jul, jul, stralande jul for sundown as it is the second Sunday of Advent. Yvonne is flying out to meet Simon on the 6th, and her and our arrival may be close - it feels like one of those mad Top Gear competitions where a man races up a mountain track whilst Jeremy Clarkson cruises along in a Ferrari. I wonder who will win this one!
15.30 4 Dec
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