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Lydia - Leg 2 Day 2 - Which Way to St Lucia?



This time yesterday our plotter screen was littered with boats showing on
AIS (Automated Identification System), which tells us who is who amongst the
dots on the horizon or the navigation lights in the darkness. Tonight
everyone has settled on their marginally different courses across the
Atlantic (the skipper's cunning plan to get the best wind for Lydia is to go
south of the rhum line) and tweaked their sails to get their best speed for
these lovely reaching conditions, such that we only have one yacht, CALISTA,
a Brit catamaran for company.

We've brainstormed the events of the day over supper and decided that not a
lot has happened really. This may set the tone for the days to come, with
only the vagaries of the Mailasail email programme's French spellchecker to
provide our readers with entertainment. In fact, in true Gallic fashion it
cant't even be bothered to correct the spelling to French and in true
laissez faire fashion it lets you do your own fat-fingered thing.

With other yachts in company, last night was comparatively stimulating. A
rather bemused freighter headed for Ghent (according to the AIS) managed to
weave his way through the fleet of about 40 boats in a bit of ocean where I
suspect he seldom encounters another contact in the course of a day. And,
lest we get complacent about assuming that everyone is using AIS (under 100m
long you dont have to), Matthew had fun during his watch dodging a 'mystery'
yacht that decided to cross our bow during the small hours.

Talking of fun ....the bilge got cleaned today! So the whiff of diesel and
stale water in the saloon (which makes Matthew an ex conventional submariner
wonderfully nostalgic but does nothing for the rest of us) is hopefully a
thing of the past. To celebrate Matthew knocked up an excellent Salad
Nicoise with 'Huevos Ramon' and tonight a passable beef stew 'slop' was
either eaten or spilled as we continue to rumble along between 7 & 8 knots
with about 16 kts of wind on our starboard beam. We badly need the
individually gimbled soup bowls that we have heard the Italian boat OCEAN
BIRD has. We also know they have a chef!

The fisherman continue to dream of fish. Steve (the doctor)'s hand line
shows no signs of going bar taut and the reel on the skipper's new rod is
yet to scream as a hefty wahoo/tuna/dorado takes his silicon rubber dayglo
coloured irresistable lure. Tomoorow is another fishing day.

The stars (including some shooting ones) are out. The visibility is gin
clear (we've left the Saharan dust behind us now) and we expect a crescent
moon sometime during the morning watch.

The gizmo still says early 2 Dec as our arrival in St Lucia. Watch this
space for developments!


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