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La Contenta - Day 21: Wonderful tonight



Day 21: Wonderful tonight
 
We are speeding along.  Its 01.30 am, the moon is bright and casting a silver patina on the water that glistens and moves in harmony with the movement of the sea.  The waves are large and ‘up our chuff’ and LC is just riding over them with ease.  We are twissle rigged and reefed in.  The wind is 25 knots with occasional higher gusts and we are averaging 7 knots.  It’s wonderful tonight.
 
Last night we crossed one of my thresholds with under 500 miles to go.  Today we crossed another. We could now motor all the way to Saint Lucia and not run out of diesel.  This is a real plus to know that that is an option if needed.   Tomorrow we should pass my next milestone of 200 miles to go when we are then in helicopter rescue range.  After that its all plain sailing into Saint Lucia where we hope to arrive on Wednesday.
 
Today we almost caught a fish!  There was great excitement when the reel started to run, and then even more with the effort needed to start reeling it in.  We could see a huge fish occasionally breaking the surface of the water and our excitement rose.  It came crashing down when the line went slack and it swam away.  We think we know why aren’t catching any fish.  Tonight we sang our boat song ‘On the happy boat La Contenta’ which Cal had written a while ago.  Mid way in there is a line ‘Three weeks in and still no fish’.  Cal burst out laughing and said – ‘That was a bit prophetic – I must be to blame’.  As Ghandi on said ‘Our thoughts become our beliefs, our beliefs become our actions, and our actions become our destiny’.  We are now considering a rewrite of that verse!
 
A while ago I extolled the virtue of lee cloths.  I can now see that they have another important function.  Thy remind me of a Catholic confessional box.  You lie there knowing that someone is on the other side but you cant see them, and cant touch them.  All you can do is talk to the screen and wait for a considered reply.  In the absence of facial expression voice intonation becomes interesting.  Dave and I have now had several of these conversations and are finding a lot of humour in them. 
 
We have had a lot of laughter on board.  LC lives up to her name and is a very happy boat.  She is a joy to be on and she’s sailing wonderfully tonight.
 
 
 
Update: Pink marigold glove 2:  Professional fish lure 1

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