Hummingbird Blog 1 Dec 2024
Happy December!
The wind fairies continue to arrive and Doc is now tagged with the handle of
Double Digit Doc as we hit 11 kts under his helming last night. The wind has
dropped off slightly in the morning and is expected to pick back up this
evening. We would prefer to be further South at this point but although the wind
speed is getting to where we want it to be, the wind direction is not. We'd like
to be sailing on a compass course of around 265 deg but we currently can only
get between 275-280 deg. The sea state has also been as bit confused over the
last twelve hours and every few waves it yaws our stern around. Very
frustrating! This may cost us time away from sampling the first Carib beer that
we look forward to sampling in Saint Lucia! In anticipation of the strengthening
winds later today we plan on changing out our headsail from Yankee 1 to Yankee 2
and taking a reef in the main before nightfall.
Some of you may
ask, with all this rhythm of sail, eat, sleep, repeat, do we ever get a chance
to just relax and chat. Well, certainly we do. We have quite a diverse crew on
board and so when the sails are set we get down to solving some World Problems,
kind of like a mini United Nations. As Chip mentioned previously, when on a
small boat diplomacy is the key, so best to avoid sensitive subjects such as
politics and religion. Instead we have focused on such topics as energy and the
environment, heathcare systems of various countries, and of course politics and
religion. I have to say, the insight and intellect of the crew is unsurpassed,
as with only 1 week at sea with a crew of 12, we have solved exactly the same
number of world problems that the actual U.N, has, and they have had over 300
representatives at it since the end of the second world war. Impressive
eh?
What was that?
Oops got to go, the skipper is telling me I'm taking too long with this blog and
it's time to change the headsail. Chin chin!
Bill