When will we ever learn? so the song goes. How true. Last night we decided to have our second nearly there celebration as everything seemed to be going fine. HA! We had crossed 55 degrees west and the miles were beginning to drop below 300. So the wind died away in the night and guess what? The engine wouldn't start. So there we were drifting about again. At least this time we didn't have to come to terms with the hydrovane becoming a useless piece of metal attached to the transome, because we had already been through that one. But this time instead of deep gloom we decided to have a cup of tea at 0600 and see if that would do the trick. And it did do the trick - the engine started. Who says magic doesn't work?
I think we are finally past having conversations about how long it would take a sandwich paste bottle to reach 4,000 metres below chart datum (66.6 minutes by the way) or which flying fish can fly the furthest (it doesn't seem to be anything to do with size).
We have, at last, got the Caribbean Travel guide out and have been tentatively looking at it, especially to see if coconut rum is available in St Lucia. I can't help but be concerned that we are tempting fate though. Is
there possibly anything else that can hinder our arrival?. I'm sure there must be lots of things, unfortunately. But we are really hoping to get there for the party.
When we get to St Lucia I am going to kiss the 20 year old auto helm because it has been working like a Trojan and has enabled us to get a break from helming, considering that we have no bimini. Graham wasn't even sure it would be able to hold the boat on course, but it has! Am I chancing fate saying this? If I am you will surely hear about it as we are charging the batteries at this very moment in case of future limited power. We are also generating water, just in case.
Anyway it's a beautiful day here and blooming hot. Sorry to those of you who are suffering the cold.
Cheerio
Pip