We awoke to the most gorgeous of days, it was perfect tropical weather…..wall to wall sunshine, blue sky, blue sea. First off the girls sat in the mainsail bag atop the flaked sail singing songs like ‘row, row, row you boat’….. We then dug out the lounging cushions and put them on the Bimini roof and Freyja and Lucy sat cooking themselves until even they had had enough…it was hot, hot, hot. Us elder crew members kept well out of the sunshine until the sun began to dip lower on the horizon. We read, played music, chatted, made homemade hummus to accompany lunch of falafels, salad and Freyja’s homemade sun-dried tomatoes bread….food is just such a major highlight of our days.
So today, we knew it was going to be a slow sailing day as the forecasted winds were low…..Therefore there was ample opportunity to ‘do’ other things. I rummaged about getting out the Lino printing tools, Lino, paints, paper, pens and all the arty crafty stuff. Freyja, Lucy and I enjoyed a jolly afternoon chatting and making a right old mess of the cockpit table and ourselves….Some really nice creations came out of it. One of which was called ‘The one that got away"
Stephen had put out the fishing line this morning and within minutes there was a high pitched ‘whizzzzzzzzz’ as a massive amount of line streamed out from the rod across the water. Everyone leaping up to brake it, then a huge fish launched it self out of the surf and pitched it self back into the wave….and then the line went slack…..what was it???? T’was a golly gosh jolly BIG whatsit of a sports fish, probably a marlin and therefore not one we would have entertained landing on the boat, it would have been one of those fighters and thrashers….SO it was a big 'thank goodness' moment that it bit through the line, but it means we have lost our ‘lucky’ lure……So we now have to try a new one but maybe tomorrow, enough excitement for the day.
We have 700 miles on the DTW (distance to waypoint) meaning to St Lucia and tomorrow is forecasted wind (It will be 600nm by the time you all read this)…..It is going to be two days of rolling out and sheeting in or whatever the old salty sailing dogs of old called pulling all the ropes, throwing up as much sail as possible to that make ‘Bimble’ fly across the ocean. …..there will be no rest, no play, no shenanigans and NO alcohol for the crew, the regime will be harsh (not really…just C’ptn whiplash speaking aka me)….but these are 2 serious days of sailing, they are going to put miles under our keels!!!!!…or at least we hope so.
Lastly there is so much sargasso weed floating on the surface, it is increasing more daily….not the huge islands of it that I have seen when sailing the tropics before but enough of it to notice as we sail by. Some got wrapped around our prop and we had to free it. Not sure what it all means but I know it is something that the environmentalists are interested in.
So big love to all in UK whether friends, family or just interested parties who are reading our log, sorry it isn’t more technical sailing stuff but there we are
…keep warm….enjoy the festivities as they hot up to Christmas…
Nina and all the Crew on 'Bimble'