16 March 2010
We are bowling along under lovely sunny skies, having now passed the halfway mark. The wind has swung round to the east south east but is too strong for us to be able to attempt to raise the ballooner. We still recall our last fiasco back in St Lucia and will have to wait for lighter winds which should not be for at least another two days. Nevertheless Voyageur is comfortable under full main and mizzen and poled out reefed down genoa, and managing just to keep on our rhumb line. Since we lost sight of Liza astern of us, now two days ago, we have not had the merest glimpse of a sail.
We are truly alone. Neither are we within VHF range of the group behind, after many days of communicating with them. A solitary swallow tailed gull skims over the surface of the ocean. I should have kept one of the 22 flying fish we collected from Voyageur's decks this morning and he could have joined us for dinner. I keep hoping he will hitch a lift, we have plenty room for guests. These racing legs do keep you moving and sailing. If a boat is in sight, either ahead or astern, it concentrates the mind and stirs you from that lethargy that can take over as one day slips into another. If you see nothing you relax. It just takes a tiny scrap of sail on the horizon and the race is on again. Time to shake out that reef and trim the sails, looking for that extra few points of boat speed. The longer time goes on the more determined we are not to use the engine. Once we were sorely tempted to motor sail out of the lighter and variable winds but the rules require that you declare the engine hours. Hence we are saving a small fortune in fuel!
Susan Mackay