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Beetle - Beetle - day 19



Forget what I wrote on day 14 - about not being able to achieve hull speed. 2 hours later the trade winds kicked in big time. During the night we reached 34 knots of true wind and seas to match. Following seas, but still quite massive waves.
The weather forecast informed, that the the Trade winds would persist in the western grids with a fresh to strong force for the next several days.

The next couple of days the wind abated to about 24 knots true, which gave us a more reasonable 16 knots (8 m/s) apparant. Last night we didn't have any moon, and the sky was filled with dark clouds.

We had one reef in the main and the genua 1/3 rolled in hoisted on the pole. The wind rose to 44 knots true and we made an unvoluntary gybe. We had a boom preventer attached, which held the sail, but we were heeling massively. Skipper called Mrs. Skipper on deck and told her to release the mail halyard.

At the same time Skipper furled the genua and we managed to gybe back to course 270 M. The mainsail locked somewhat beating and appeared stuck to one of the spreaders. We started the engine and went a little upwind and managed to get the sail a bit down. The mainsail looked allright. We did 2. reef and with 1/3 genua we continued.

In the afternoon we had been caught up by Lancelot II, who came up from SE cutting angles. We were dead downwind 270 M. She passed a few nm behind us, and we wondered cause she must have been doing a low VMG. Not long after we saw on AIS, that she had changed course directly towards St. Lucia.

Our little mishap made her gain a few miles on us. This morning she is no longer visible on AIS. Instead we have had Free Spirit for a few hours on our starboard side.

Regarding food - Mrs. Skipper have not had much of an appetite - even though we have changed from pasta to rice. The last 3 evenings Skipper have been preparing 2 times chicken Tikka Masala and last night we had diced pork with sweet and sour sauce.

This morning we have realized that the genua has been torn along on of the sewings, but it's an old genua which we brought along for downwind sailing. It has done very well, but needs to attend a sail maker when we get ashore.

Today is our last day at sea. We expect to reach Rodney Bay some time tomorrow morning local time. We have taken well care of the "tank water" and we probably have more than 100 liters left. Skipper had earlier suggested, that we took a fresh water shower in the evening before arrival, whereafter we would try not to sweat ourselves unnessary. This mornings conditions made Mrs. Skipper think twice. Forecast is for 20-25 knots of wind - let's see weather we can manage it. We have only had one bath which was the solar shower (salt water) some days ago.

We are doublehanding Beetle and have had good teamwork the last days, aiming for both crew to get enough sleep. This has been most important for Skipper, who actually more ore less is on watch, duty or call 24 hours a day. This means most of the time sleeping with shoes on, lifejacket on and sail gloves on.

Skipper had a few hours sleep this morning, whereafter Mrs. Skipper took her last seasickness pill and is currently sleeping in the saloon.

We look forward to seeing our kids in Rodney Bay tomorrow. Besides that we look forward to the steel band and the welcome drink of rum punch and the six-pack of beer. And a little less rolling that we have experienced for the last 3-4 days...!

171 nautical miles to go...

Skipper, Beetle

N15.11, W58.15



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