Sally - Last day at sea before landfall

This day started with a big squall with lot of wind and rain and good speed. We have good wind until lunch when it decreases to below 15 knots. Have tried to catch a fish with no success.Since we made so good progress the last 24 hours and the wind stayed close to 15 knots today, we will arrive to Saint Lucia this evening. Our last dinner on the Atlantic crossing was our favourite dish, meat balls with mashed potatoes and cream sauce with lingon berry jam. We have put the Atlantic crossing champagne in the fridge (a gift from Pia and Christer, our old neighbours in Västerås) and we look forward to taste it later this evening.Cheers. read more...

Sally - 180 nm to sail before landfall in Rodney Bay

The last 180 nm, before we make landfall in Rodney Bay on Saint Lucia, seems to be challenging. The weather forecast promise light wind tomorrow and still some swell. Will cause a lot of flapping sails and motoring.The last night was a squally night and so was this evening. During my watch we got the longest squall so far, one hour of rain and 25 knots of wind.It’s an intense experience sailing a rushing sailboat in total darkness and all I hear is the rain and the breaking waves around the boat. Each time I watched the radar, the squall was centered above us and it felt as it has catched Sally and will never let us go. But after one hour of madness it suddenly stopped raining and I could see the difference between sea and air. What a relief.We are sailing wing on wing again, its faster. read more...

Sally - In Saint Lucia time zone

The last night we sailed into a new time zone, GMT-4, the same time zone that is used in Saint Lucia and the rest of the Caribean, at least the islands we plan to visit. We also crossed track with another ARC boat and according to the AIS, it could be a close passage of a couple of hundred meters only. To make sure they saw us and to clarify how we shall pass each other, we make several VHF calls but without any response. It was not until we used a search light on our sails that they reacted and changed course and passed behind us. After the passage, we make another VHF call, but no response this time either. Maybe their VHF was malfunctioning or so.We also got a couple of squalls with a lot of rain and wind (35 knots) and since we can furl our sails from cockpit and are reaching, its. read more...

Sally - Tired of rolly wing on wing sailing

Today we had enough of rolly sailing wing on wing with sails flapping hard now and then. We are now reaching and zick zacking along the route. Much more stable boat and easier to be onboard now and we can also get more sleep. For the moment we prioritize comfort over shorter time at sea. Think there are less strain on the boat as well since reaching create a more constant pressure on the sails and rigging gear. Today we had nice and sunny weather and more wind than yesterday. Think we will arrive to Saint Lucia on Saturday.. read more...

Sally - Squalls, sun and dolphins

This morning we get a series of refreshing squalls followed by a blue sunny sky and a wind that was stabilized around SSE and 18 knots. So first a lot of reefing, gybing and unreefing. After that we have been reaching or sailing wing on wing on our route to Saint Lucia. The todays position report showed that a couple of boats has arrived to Saint Lucia, while we still have 850 nm to sail. We enjoy the time onboard and today we was visited by a group of dolphins. We also catchedmore flying fish on the deck, think we soon will look and smell like fishing boat :) The food is still super good and todays lunch was a tortilla with a zucchini curry and pickled onions. For dinner we had meat balls with meshed potatoes and lingon berry jam and peaches with whipped cream as dessert. No other boats. read more...