Not another day in the
office.
The last 24 hours has seen steady
progress to the West with sunny skies and gentle breezes from all round the
compass, but mostly enabling us to sail in the desired
direction.
We have now travelled over 1,100 NM
and have less than 1,900 NM to go to St Lucia. The unsettled weather of recent
days seems to have moved to the North East and we are hoping for cooperative –
if light - winds for the next 48 hours, and Matt continues to promise that the
vaunted Trade Winds will at some point arrive to waft us on a “conveyor belt” to
St Lucia.
Away from sailing the boat, the most
exciting event of the last day was Matt and Mike succeeding in fixing the water
maker by ingeniously utilising the boat’s fresh water pump to bypass the water
maker’s failed primary pump. As a
result the crew has been able to wash today for the first time in several days,
greatly refreshing the atmosphere down below.
Today, Jan and his gaffing and
gutting assistants, David and Fabio, were able to land not one but two
magnificent fish. Tonight we are promised mahi mahi provencale, and Jan is
stepping down from his normal position of executive chef to practising cook to
prepare this feast. No doubt a
review will follow tomorrow.
This afternoon we saw a solitary
humpback breaching and flapping its flukes in greeting. On the subject of whales, despite
David’s scepticism of my knowledge of cetaceans, consultation of the on board
whale guide suggests that the pod we saw yesterday were sperm whales – as
indicated by their forward leaning spouts and their appearance of “logging” on
the surface.
Tonight, there is no moon and we are
hoping for clear skies and a display of stars unpolluted by any light other than
the modest glow of our navigation lights.
Peter