We are now well into the trade winds with good
20-kt easterlies, the occasional squall, and a very gentle swell. This allowed
us to take bets on when we will arrive in St. Lucia. Our Dear Leader
Chris, presumably in the know, counts on having his first island rum on Tuesday,
Dec. 09. Dr. Ian, our allegedly erudite but more pessimistic
crew member, puts it at a more cautious Friday the
12th. In any case, with the mid-point here, the countdown has
started.
Today also we successfully negotiated a
first time change of two hours. As a result of this we have reverted to a sunset about six pm and sunrise about
seven am again as we had in Las Palmas. We will have one more time change of
course shortly before arrival.
And we should get there soon because the extraordinary
cooking in constrained circumstances that has so enlightened our voyage so far
means that we are about to finish the fresh foods and revert back to canned
vegetables, pizzas and the Italian delicacy of spaghetti, aglio, olio,
e pepperoncini for the rest of the trip. Unless we catch more fish,
of course, but they are playing hard to get and today several fish bit our
shiny lures only to chew through the line and escape before we could serve
them some rum. We will keep trying!
The interaction among the the crew continues to develop
in interesting directions reflecting our diverse backgrounds and personalities,
with the A Team still discussing deep philosophical concepts such as
"nothingness" and Team A trying to come up with the perfect murder scenario (not
involving a boat with eleven passengers).
We were followed for several hours by a lost bird from
the Cape Verde which attempted unsuccessfully to make off with our lure whilst
Xav found himself attacked by a few flying fish while studying at the chart table down-under.
Overall we all continue to be deeply struck by the
physical environment of endless vistas of sea and sun and sky which we are
settling into as we progress. We look forward to further interesting vistas
of all sorts over the next and second week.
Current position 1800 17'00.31N
36'23.00W