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Albatross - YB Connect Message from Fernando Assens



Dec 9 - 20th Day at Sea

All is well. We are 346 miles from St Lucia, and Las Palmas is 2,402 miles behind us.

We are moving along nicely at an average of 6.6 knots. Over the last 24 hours we completed 160 nautical miles. Since yesterday we have been sailing together with Serenity and Sundance, both now 9 miles away on our port side. As we get closer to St Lucia we expect to see more and more boats.

The flying fish are getting bolder. This morning we found a death one inside the boat, by the mast! We have a well stocked fridge and so far have not been tempted to eat them, but if one of them jumps into a pan, we will have to fry it. They are reportedly full of bones and don't have a lot of flesh.

At noon, we listened to the ARC daily broadcast over SSB radio. Various yachts report on their status, share their fishing successes and go over weather or equipment issues. We don't have an SSB and cannot broadcast, but have a Sony short wave radio and can listen. It does feel like eavesdropping on people's private conversations and it's nice to hear gossip about other boats. One of the news bits today was that a boat already in Rodney Bay caught fire due to a fault on their air conditioning equipment.

After yesterday's cooking fiasco, and with a somewhat more steady boat, Kevin gave it another try, this time with a crowd pleaser spaghetti and meatballs. It was a great success and nothing ended up on the floor, which with current sea conditions was remarkable. For lunch we had octopus with potatoes and paprika (pulpo a la Gallega), which was also very nice. We will end up with a lot of excess food and are busy eating the best cuts before arriving in St Lucia.

After the good luck fishing over the last two days, we were disappointed when no fish caught our line, but after reeling it in we discovered that something big had bitten because the lure was gone. A nylon line alone was not inviting enough. Perhaps tomorrow!


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