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Theodora - The evening of 11/12 - 121 miles to go.



Thank you to Bryony and Captain Nick Thomas for emailing answers to some of our questions. Unfortunately we cannot receive attachments so answers have to be in the body of the text please. I had, well none of us onboard had any idea that we had spent two weeks sailing through the Sargasso Sea. I think we are still seeking to find out where European eels mate....

One of the more fearful features of an Atlantic crossing is supposed to be coping with the frequent squalls. Up until today we had only had to cope with about four of them and they had been all about rain and not wind. So, early this afternoon the sky behind us was dark and foreboding, there was definitely a huge squall coming. Rather weirdly we all got about eager and excited about this and prepared accordingly. Hatches were closed, the rig reefed to number two, cushions were put away and water proofs donned. Quite an effort. It was very frustrating to then see this squall slide to the north and miss us completely. However our wishes came true later on when we got complete soaked by another squall.

And that has been the whole day, grey cloudy windy and wet. There must be a weak ridge or front passing through.`

We have been chatting about equipment that has made a special contribution to the trip, other than the twizzle rig. The unsung hero award must go to our little Fischer Panda 4K a generator . This has allowed us to have a limitless supply of fresh water, hot water showers and a working fridge and freezer.

If there is a winner there has to be a looser and that award I’m afraid goes to our luckless fishing rod. It’s not its fault but it has been dangling lures for fish for days or hundreds of miles. We believe we might have had three good bites but the boat speed has made it impossible to haul them in.

We have now moved our clocks on to St Lucia time which completes our program of times changes to avoid jet lag. We have also broken out the tourist brochure for St Lucia and note that her is a full moon fever party in the marina on Friday night. We should be there by then.

The fashion officer on board has issued instructions as to what uniform tops we must wear tomorrow for crossing the finish line, the only person who then has to run around and wash the required top was me. We have also been discussing our tactics for crossing the finish line in Rodney Bay. The point is that having spent seventeen days sailing downwind we are going to have to cross the finishing line which will be upwind. We have a plan that requires careful choreography with the twizzle rig being partly lowered so that we can head to windward to raise our main and at
The same time completely dismantle the twizzle. What can possibly go wrong?

We are now under 100 miles from our turning point into the Rodaney Bay finishing line and we are making good speed I just hope we can get there in daylight to change the sail plan rather than having to do it in the dark.

I hope you have found these short letters from the Atlantic front insightful in that they shine a little light into what five blokes do on a boat for sixteen days.

Adam

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