Fish Pie - Saturday 14th December

Nearly there!!!! Only 15 miles to go!! We can see the mighty hills of StLucia forming dark shadows in the haze ahead of us. Black and white skewer birdsare swooping down into the sea around us. Strangely none of us seem particularlyexcited about landfall. We have been living on this small kingdom for the lastthree weeks and we are not sure what to expect in St Lucia. One thing we are allexcited about – no more night watches!!! All looking forward to showers andfreshly laundered clothes, fresh fruit and an ice cold beer. Several boats are around us and there is still that competitive instinctthat make some of us ( well me, really not my sub-alpha male fellow crew!) wantto pull out all stops and sneak past a few boats at the end. I'm getting the camera ready for the arrival photos and the. read more...

Fish Pie - We can't believe it, nearly there

Not a bad run yesterday, managed 160 miles, which, considering at noontoday we had only 167 miles to go to the waypoint N of St Lucia, makes us nearlythere!  Woo Hoo!  Should get there early afternoon tomorrow, or latemorning local time, –4 hours. Today is a real scorcher, we had to rig up a tarp in the cockpit forshade.  Also decent winds, about 20 knots from directly behind.  Wehave had enough of all the rolling, so looking forward to an undisturbed nighttied up in the marina.  We are currently running with about 4 or 5 otherboats, they keep disappearing from the AIS, but we all sang happy birthday overthe VHF to Alan from Opus 1 who is 79 today.  So we’re not the oldest crewin the ARC. We’re nearly out of everything, so looking forward to all. read more...

Fish Pie - sunday 7 dec

Song selections on the Fish Pie jukebox -  The Commitments – I cantstand the Rain, George Ezra - Did You hear the Rain, Travis - Why does it alwaysRain on me? not sure which will last longer, our selection of songs or the rainyweather! We've had a few fronts come through the last few days and everything isa bit damp. Two nights ago an extra big wave hit us broad side flooding over me,into the cockpit, washing into Martin’s cabin, giving him a rude awakening, thenas the boat rocked back the other way it washed down into Justin’s cabin dousinghim as well! No lasting damage done, although my kindle came to a watery end,good job I'd just finished my book! I’m currently holed up in my cabin as we are being buffeted by winds inexcess of 30 knots and torrential rainfall – there is blue. read more...

Fish Pie - Horace has croaked

Hello everyone from Fish Pie. Bit of a disaster on the wind vaneself-steering gear, Horace, who we had to decommission as we have run out ofspare mounting bolts. Originally one bolt snapped off in use, fortunatelyI had a couple of spares, but they have both failed as well, so without any morebolts, we can’t use him any more. We have been quite frugal with thediesel, so we have plenty to run the engine and charge the batteries, but notenough to run the autopilot 24/7, so we will have to hand steer most of the wayfrom now on. We are well over half way, as I write this we have 1224 milesto St Lucia, from 2800 originally, so we’re getting there steadily with dailyruns of an average of 145 miles. Wind is averaging 25 knots from behindwhich is quite manageable, but the swell is getting to. read more...

Fish Pie - 4th December

Rockin and a Rollin, Rollin and a Rockin. We have hit the trade winds andthe SWELL! It takes ten times as much effort to do anything, as we are beingthrown around in all directions. At times there has been about 3 metres of swelland we are touching eight knots as we surf down the waves. Sadly the Hydrovane is not liking the conditions and failed again lastnight, so we were having to take it in turns to hand steer – not easy in thedark, and with this swell. Repairs made today which involved skipper harnessedto the back of the boat as he hung off to slide the rudder back intoposition. The banana cake I made, to cheer the crew up at elevenses, ended up slidingdown the back of the oven due to the swell.We have been in radio contact with two other boats who are sailing onparallel courses to. read more...