Falcon - Crossing Day 5

Distance run in last 24 hours = 171 nautical miles. Miles to Grenada =1327.

Yesterday aboard Falcon was mostly a day spent ‘going with the flow’. We continue wing-on-wing happily plodding more or less along our rhum line - a tactic that seems to be working as we watch the racer boys and girls criss-crossing north-to-south and south-to-north all around us! I think in competitive terms, we’d be classed as the ‘steady Eddie the Eagle’ of the fleet… softly softly, catchy monkey is our game play and our latest position report, placing us in 45th position, seems to justify our somewhat lackadaisical approach to unnecessary expenditure of time, effort, and calories to gybe the pole..

Although wind strength and wave height have remained relatively constant, the weather has become noticeably more varied as we progress west. Yesterday we encountered several squalls which resulted in us rolling more reefs than a hippy in the ‘natural remedies’ tent at Glastonbury festival! It keeps us on our toes and even provides a modicum of exercise in having to load the furling line on the electric winch!

Tomorrow we hope to reach our half-way point. In readiness we have all agreed to set our clocks back an extra hour… time will tell - quite literally - if this attempt at crew synchronicity will cause havoc to our watch changes!

Finally, some welcome news for Winch Monkey. In recognition of his exemplary hand steering efforts to gain half a knot, pick off targets, and save autopilot amps, he has been promoted to Helm Monkey. A promotion with benefits too; sleeping quarters no longer in the bilge, but above decks in the open stern locker with the added benefit of random, yet refreshing, salt water showers several times a night!

That’s all for today. We plod on eating the miles to Grenada, reggae, and chilled Carib beers. Falcon out.