December 3, 2015 – It’s day 11 of our trip. The sea is like in the beginning of our trip: long, high waves that are coming from the back right corner which is causing the washing machine effect. We therefore had a bit of a bumpy night, just because we were rolling in our beds and therefore some difficulties falling asleep. Other than that a fine night with no extraordinaries.
In the early morning Herman threw out a fishing line, with little expectation because of the high waves, but few hours later we did catch a Mahi Mahi again. Catching and preparing fish has become part of our daily routine now! We’re looking forward to the fish curry that we will have for lunch tomorrow.
Today started as a sunny and very warm day. Hours passed by quickly with people reading books, hand steering, listening music, knitting (new hobby of Mariette and Nicoline, with Inge being the teacher) and taking naps. Herman and Gerard have pulled out the Watt&Sea because it is causing quite some water due to a leakage in the stern that otherwise needs to be pumped out 4 times a day. In the afternoon it became cloudy with now and then a shower of rain.
The blue mountains keep approaching us from the back. It’s still amazing to see how the boat is lifted by these high walls of water and how Shiva can then make a speed of 12 or sometimes even more knots. On average we are making 8 to 9 knots. Hand steering goes much smoother than the auto pilot so that’s what we have been doing a lot today. It’s lovely to steer Shiva over the blue dunes and mountains.
Today we made 197 nautical miles in total and 177 effective miles, that is 177 miles closer to Saint Lucia. Also we crossed the 40th longitude and thereby we crossed the midpoint of our map. Reason to celebrate with a beer during the borrel!