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White Satin - Nearly there



2574 miles sailed 453 miles to go

Here is yet another attempt to depict daily life on White Satin.

We are looking at the very strong possibility of a Monday arrival, although
I am trying not to tempt fate here. On our very first entry in this blog,
we queried where David will be for his
birthday. Well, we now know the answer to that and are doing all we can to
make it special for him - although being at sea is a pretty memorable way of
marking the occasion and proves that there is still life in the old dog yet.

Anyhow, more of that tomorrow.

When David returned from his first ARC in 2006, he took some East Caribbean
dollars out of his pocket and said that he wasn't going to change them back
into pounds, St Lucia was so beautiful that we must return. It may have
taken us 10 years to do so but we are nearly there. It has been an amazing
trip, certainly for the Addeys and has exceeded our expectations beyond our
wildest hopes. Conditions could not have been kinder and the crew couldn't
have been more fun or more considerate; after a hectic pace of life in our
work and since then with the preparations for the voyage and also the house
build, we have certainly learned to chill and this is because we have all
worked so well together. There has more than one occasion when I could
happily have withdrawn, particularly in the summer, but the others have
constantly encouraged me and I have them to thank that I am here, we have
done it (almost) and I have no doubt that the elation of arriving will be
phenomenal.

As conditions are speeding up some of our previous activities been
curtailed/stopped altogether. Fiona and I are regretting not having redone
our toe nail varnish whilst the sea was still smooth - if you look at
today's photo (which was taken with the camera stabilised on the table) you
will understand why. BTW the rope you can see is the propeller for the towed
generator. Talking of toes, yesterday we witnessed Jon receiving a mild
rebuke from Helen for cutting his toe nails in the cockpit, despite Jon's
insistence that he was counting each offending item 'in' and 'out'. Paul,
clearly knowing which side of his bread is buttered and not wanting to incur
his wife's wrath, decided to carry out the same task with his legs dangling
over the back of the boat on the pulpit seat - possibly the most dangerous
act of the voyage so far, until he was called back in, when he was then
encouraged to cut his toenails in the cockpit - he clearly knows how to work
the system.

The hammocks which used to house the fruit and vegetables are coming down as
they are emptied. There has been a miscalculation on the provisioning as
last night's Beef Madras (courtesy of M & S) had to be eaten with pasta, not
rice - however, it filled a hole. You will see that we are now under the
500 miles mark; earlier in the blog we commented that it wouldn't matter if
we had run out of chocolate by this stage - at that point we just couldn't
imagine being this close (and there are still a few bits of chocolate left).

The night sky is changing; a couple of weeks ago the stars were incredibly
bright. Now the new moon is slowly taking over and the reflection of the
moon on the sea makes the job of hand steering (which the skipper does like
to do) much easier.

As we approach Saint Lucia, Fiona, (the wise one) is simply savouring every
moment at sea.

Boat time went back to UTC -3 today, we haven't really stuck to convention
on time changes but we have enjoyed the light evenings!! We are master of
our own time zone.

Anticipatory times.
Vicki


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