Bagheera - An Engineers Guide to Sailing.

Well it's been a wee while since we last reported in, aside from the Yellow Bricks fastidious hourly reports on lat and long, but it's now definitely the final run for St Lucia.

So what's been going on in the world of team Bagheera?

After some long watches, Captain Simon and Mate Peter finally felt that their misfits were suitably capable of flying the big rag again so up she went and it was game on. The deep running Stay Calm had better watch out! Or so we thought but after some good days sailing we had a sneaky little lesson on the art of race sailing by Tom and Simon, who not only managed to engineer a Broach but slipped in an informative Crash Jibe on the back of it to complete the curriculum! It was a very good reminder to all us amateurs that we were not quite at the Dennis Conner stage just yet...Mind you some of the effing and jeffing just after would have made him proud.

The above master class occurred at about 2100, which to this team's amazement was a good 6hours shy of 3am the magic number. It appears that for the duration of our crossing it has been a time full of activity. Kite up, Kite Down, Jibe, Black Ship, Flying Fish attacks - the writer received a full blooded belt to the noggin a few nights ago, very smelly indeed. But if it's going to happen on Bagheera it's going to go down at three for sure.

Unfortunately we have still not managed to get the fishing rod out as we have been just too busy, obviously, or this blog would have been done an age ago. Kamal was rather distraught by this turn of events until he took the speed prize with a humming 21.3kts surfing his way to glory. However with activity come calorie requirements and these big buttons that need pushing to run the hydraulics really take it out of you so we now find ourselves dangerously low on chocolate and sweets!!! Not all hope has been lost though as we still have the pot noodle and hot pot stash, thank the heavens.

Speaking of heavens, Bagheera has recently been transformed into a classroom as Peter has been trying, with great aplomb, to teach the sextant and our sun sights. A good rule of thumb is to make sure you have the shades over the mirrors or the old retina gets a nasty wee surprise.

Off the topic of sailing a special mention must go to Rob Knox, who yesterday managed to wrestle the world record away from the writer's brother for the quickest time to un-dome and re-dome a cowboy shirt. The writers watch has benn whiled away with some very inventive games, including the much enjoyed A-Z of delicious foods, and we are still receiving daily visits from the two Pilot whales that have accompanied us much of the way. Tomorrows black tie gala dinner is greatly anticipated after todays impromptu tea party, Roast Turkey with all the trimmings sounds just about as good as it can get when in the middle of an ocean. On that note Rebecca you definitely get the most popular crew member award as we have been eating like Kings on this passage so a huge thanks to you from all the boys.

So it's been plain sailing all the way, aside the fact we can't sail downwind which will result in us sailing half the crossing again on our current calculations, 2345 on the clock and counting. However we a sure that the wind gods are due to swing in our favour anytime now and we are going to chew through the miles towards St Lucia.

So bye for now from The Bagheera bunch and we promise to say hi again before the final stages..