1730 GMT, Sunday Dec 5, 2011
14 31N 059 13 W (about 70nm north of Barbados)
Distance sailed from Gran Canaria: 2837nm
Rhumb line distance to go: 272nm
Dear Family and Friends,
Hello all
Well we have just finished what we are predicting will be our last lunch on this Atlantic crossing. At the moment our ETA into St Lucia is in approximately 20 hours time which should be around day break tomorrow. Having traveled south west we have had to change our clocks four times and most of this has been in the last few days (one crew member commented "gee we are changing time zones more than I am changing my underwear!") Right now it is 1:30pm. We had two 12:30pms today as we usually change time at 1pm, (but I didn't serve 2 lunches!)... at the moment our ETA is about 5:30am local time. The first of the official ARC welcome parties is tomorrow night so we will be arriving just in time to scrub up for the event.
We have started using the 'iron genoa' (ie the motor) early yesterday morning due to the breeze finally dropping away. Right now the ground wind is 3-6 knots on the nose. While it is a shame that we couldn't sail the whole way, we have been so unbelievably lucky with the weather so far that we are not too blue. Besides having the motor on and little breeze means the boat is more stable and there is much less rolly polly. Everyone was able to sleep last night without clinging on the bed frame and the drone of the motor was almost like white noise lulling everyone into a soporific state. Last night and at lunch we even ate on plates seated at the cockpit table, although we still had one eye on the dishes, drinks, accompaniments in case the person on watch hit a 'bump in the road' (or rather an expected swell) which does happen from time to time just to remind us we are still at sea.
The food provisioning is going well - the last bananas were made into banana bread this morning, the last oranges have just been cut for a mid afternoon snack, and tonight we will have fresh apple sauce made from the reminder of the apples and a ratatouli with the reminder of the veggies, to accompany the pork steaks.
We have been discussing the pros and cons of being back on land. Things the crew will miss about doing the crossing include the peace and solitude of moonlight sailing, not being tempted to spend any money and the freedom that comes with not being tied to the internet, phone etc. There are, however, many things we are looking forward to. These include long showers, walking in one direction for more than 70ft without needing to do any side-stepping to keep balance, drinking more than 1 beer a day and last but by no means least contact with others, especially our loved ones!
Despite being so close to the end, we have seen very few other vessels. Yesterday we saw one other sail boat and just now we spotted 2 others. No doubt tonight we should start to see some more ARC finishers. We are in daily radio contact with other boats in the ARC thru a scheduled SSB contact at 1400 GMT. We know that we are by no means the only ones who have had to resort to the engine due the the dying breeze. Some boats have finished already while several others are behind us. The only other recent sign of civilisation we have seen is one plastic water bottle floating past!
Speaking of discussions... another topic we often end up having a discussion about within a discussion is the difference in our languages. Supposedly we all speak English but this doesn't mean we can always understand each other! As well as the variations in accents we often use different words for the same thing. Some examples, US "trash" = Canadian "garbage" = Kiwi "rubbish", US "flashlight" = Kiwi "torch", US "jelly" = Kiwi "jam" while Kiwi "jelly" = US "jello". So not only does it us twice as long to do anything due the boat movement often it takes us twice as long to communicate too!
Well I have used up the extra hour in the day by writing this. We look forward to being in contact again when we are secured at the dock and are enjoying the benefits of access to land.
Until then, love to all...
Lynley (Graeme, Nelson, Skip, Matt, Jim)