Sorry for the break in posting - I've been trying to encourage my shipmates into writing but alas none has been forthcoming. Thus this posting will likely be a bit rambling in my usual style!
Last night we had our first movie night. We watched Indiana Jones and the last Crusade (we had considered Titanic but....) It passed the time between nightfall and the moon coming up. Sadly we were only moving along at 4-5kt as the wind droped right off a few days ago and we have been a bit bored. Its pretty frustrating seeing the end in sight and not moving forward as we had been.
We tried everything to get a bit more speed. One of the techniques that we tried was to put out the fishing line. The reason for this is that whenever we did this (before the full moon a few days ago), we got some good hits on it and the boat instantly accelerated to over 7kt meaning that you would get a good upper body work out when bringing the fish aboard! However, even this failed to work consistently. We only had one strike and he fell off after a few seconds.
Happily the wind came up this morning along with the sun and we are now going along at 7-9kt. The winds are due to increase in the next few days so doubtless at some point we'll have to drop our 'fly and forget' Parasailor and go back to white sails. I'm really hoping that we will avoid this because the winds over the last few days have been much lighter than forecast. That would mean that we could make good speed without the constant tending that white sails would need in the swell/wind conditions.
The first (big) racing boats finished yesterday with only 20 minutes between them. Its just amazing and we hope to see some more boats as we get closer to St Lucia. We haven't seen a yacht for 2 days and even then they didn't chat to us on the radio. Before that it was 2 days as well! Happily we can stil chat to Alan on Ca Canny and share their woes. They are moving along well and only a little slower than us although they still have charging problems.
Dan and Dana are chomping at the bit as their wives are meeting them in St Lucia. Dan has been plotting our progress on his spreadsheet and trying to predict when we will get in! I'm happy to wait and see! We'll get there in good time like we're meant to and no amount of prediction will make it happen sooner!
I'm going tolook at the VHF antenna connections this afternooon (after my nap) as we are not getting the range I expected we might. That means I get to go into my 'hole' in the wardrobe. Its a pretty big hole - you can stand up in it - and its the electrical heart of the boat. Unfortunately in the swells we are having it will be uncomfortable too! Maybe I'll defer it till another day.
The generator is running at present. We've been running it for about 4 hours per day as we've been going through a fair amount of electricity. I can smell the fresh bread cooking in the breadmaker so it worth it! Julie has kept us well fed on all kinds of good food! We opened our last bag of bananas this morning so we will likely have had bananas all the way.. All the fruit has lasted really well apart from the kiwi fruit (they were chilled - should have thought of that!) We still have plenty of apples and oranges and tomatoes too!
I slept in the cockpit last nigh with only a light blanket. It was very good and I enjoyed a good sleep. I think it helps everyone else too since they duty watchkeeper is more aware of the noise he or she makes as they move around! Must repeat! Only downside is when it rains. Happily last night was only a very light shower.
Anyway- time to go now. More later - I hope.