Day 16 Becalmed
We had another pleasant evening of sundowners and Glvgg with Isak and Sam playing Swedish carols. The evening also provided good fast sailing under grey clouds and the occassional deluge.
At 5.00am this morning the wind completely switched off and we wallowed for 6 hours hardly moving an inch. By daylight the crew were on deck suffering from the heat and we eventually dropped sails and dived over the side into 4000m of water for a cooling swim around the boat.
After a long debate, finally resolved by our frustration of staring at the same piece of seaweed for over an hour(!), we gave in and started the engine for a couple of hours. We now have just enough wind to fill the spinnaker and are close reaching at about 4kt, which is still not very exciting.
We have also resolved to try again to catch a fish, and Fredrik has changed to a stronger line, however the sagatious creatures have recognised this and so far failed to bite!
We are now just 200 miles from our St Lucian waypoint, and whilst it is disappointing to have started the engine, I think the crew are ready for some shore time and we may have to do more motoring if the wind doesn't strengthen. This is not good for our race time as we will suffer time penalties, but this last few miles is turning into a game of snakes and ladders, where we seem to be getting a few too many snakes. We have however had 2500 miles of glorious sailing up until here so we cannot really complain.
16.30 5 Dec