It's been a frustrating last day: after 7 days of steady winds, our down hill run came to a halt when the breeze literally stopped. It actually started yesterday, and all the talk on the net revolved around who was going to be the first to turn the engine on approaching St Lucia. We finally admitted defeat today, when boat speed fell under 5 knots. It's not for lack of trying, we must have made 5 sail changes today, trying to catch whatever little breeze there was: gennaker up, main sail up, jibe this way, that way, we were heading towards Porto Rico at some point...then had enough, and decided to motor sail so we could at least get to St Lucia today. Under ARC rules, there is a penalty for motoring, though we won't know the extent of it until prize giving day (I think). Since we won't get a prize for being first or last, where our ranking ends up
doesn't matter much, and no one on board is keen to spend another night at sea so close to the end!
So here we are, 20 miles from Pigeon Island at the top end of St Lucia, we will have clocked up 2850nm, including 2600mn under sail, in a little over 15 days (final finishing time to be declared at the finishing line).
We end this crossing with a surprise catch from last night: a 40kg yellowfin tuna, which occured right at the beginning of a squall. We've had our fair share of sashimi and tartare now. It took nearly 2 hours to cut and package it and we must have 12 kilos of fish in the fridge, waiting for takers at the marina!!! Anyone want some fish ????