I think its official - we're all looking forward to getting there. Until yesterday when the wind came back, it was getting a bit frustrating. Happily, we got some faster miles under our belt. In fact the wind came up even more about midnight so down came the parasailor and up went the white sail - in theis case the big genoa -good decision - withing 10 minutes it was blowing 23 kts and gusting to 32! Happily it moderated and by the end of the night we had both headsails up and were going along rather nicely.
Alas, then there were the squalls. You can see them coming on radar and by eyeball. We track them inbound and make a plan that normally involves reducing sail. We saw another boat on AIS about 6am this morning about 6 miles astern heading directly towards us. Within a few minutes they had turned abruptly north in an area of squalls. We hope the did not broach (lose directional control due to carrying too much sail for the wind). Shortly afterwards we saw them continue north and have not seen them since.
As we move into the more tropical environment, we expect more and stronger squall activity. It has kkept us very busy this morning with reefing and sail plan changes as we dodge in and out of them. That said, we have an upper level high that is limiting their intensity so we are really well off!
We had seafood chowder for dinner last night with fresh bread. The last banana has just been eaten :( Never mind, we are only 2 or 3 days away now and we can have all the bananas we want!
Finally, thanks all for sending your emails,its good to hear whats going on.