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Exody - Day 1 - The big C begins with a record days run.



"I got to 7.6 knots" said Marian coming off a night watch - sounded pretty good but she meant down to 7.6 from 8's 9's and even 10's ! We ended up with a noon run to 11th January of 180 miles from the St Lucia start - but we do have to acknowledge the helpful assistance of the equatorial current to the tune of 12-20 miles - that's why this first 815 mile leg to Santa Marta Colombia is to be a quick one!

The rainy squalls of the last few days abated at Rodney Bay to give good conditions for the start, delayed by 10 minutes as the Police Launch committee boat was running late. This absence of the committee boat did not appear to deter one of our number who we think started anyway as per the original timings. We are a relatively intimate fleet of just 14 boats - so intimate that two boats we were sailing right next to attempted some kind of farewell embrace at the turning mark! We heard the ding and trust the damage to both sets of rails and prides is minimal.

It's really good to be at sea again with no more access to supermarkets, hardware stores, chandleries, sailmakers, electronics specialists and of course the internet. We are thus liberated from the lists that have governed our last five weeks of rather too hectic activities and preparations since arriving in Rodney Bay on 5th December. We traded our two transatlantic crew for two daughters for the festive season on board, visited brother Martin at Union Island en route via Grenada to Trinidad for Xmas with Marian's family, then New Year back at Union, hauling Exody at Carriacou and back to St Lucia - 500 mile round trip to three countries in 20 days. Our 24 year old flexible water tank ruptured on that last 100 mile upwind leg giving us a particular challenge in three days flat to organise new for our Panama-joining crew and to jury rig a temporary system for the next few weeks.

We are three on board to Panama with my brother Martin kindly sparing high season time to join us from his day charter business running Scaramouche in Union Island. One day in we are enjoying the established (ie more than in November/December) trade wind conditions and find ourselves pleasingly somewhere near the middle of the fleet.



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