After some dodgy weather for the past few days, it was a
welcome relief to actually see a full sky of stars on shift last night. We had a
continuous breeze of about 10-12 knots for most of the night, and the wind
shifted round to the north. This meant we were at last actually pointing west
towards St Lucia. There were a lot of shooting stars reported and a beautiful
sunrise at about 8am this morning - we are going back in time, so have
adjusted meal times according to when the sun rises and sets.
Blue skies meant only one thing - time to do some
washing and air all of our damp clothes! They were getting a bit
smelly in the boat with not much ventilation. We had our last bit of tuna for
lunch with some more delicious home made bread. We attempted to fly
the spinnaker after lunch but unfortunately the wind died. Instead we
dropped all sails and went for a lovely swim - the water was very blue and very
deep! Everyone had a good shampoo and body wash and jumped back in to rinse off.
And we all did a couple of laps around the boat to keep up the fitness regime!
At about 4pm we had a very small squall, which prompted
the sails to be put back up and the genoa unfurled. Unfortunately we realised
that it wasn't unfurling properly so Haig volunteered to get in the chair and be
hoisted up the wobbly mast. It was a dizzy spectacle even from below but he
managed to sort it and we were soon back underway! The wind is now at a steady
10 knots, and we have a good boat speed of 7-8 knots. The weather is due to stay the same for the next few days - a
relief to have some sun, we just hope that the wind keeps
up.