Agua Dulce - Log Day 17 – Are we there yet?

10am
No, but we are now past the 500NM to go mark – 83% of the way to St. Lucia! (Thanks to Captain Charles for the constant statistics)

We are starting to see boats appear on AIS again as we all converge on St. Lucia from the various courses we have chosen. We are headed straight for the island at a course over ground heading of 282ºM (M stands for magnetic versus T for true. Google magnetic deviation if you don’t understand what that means. I understand it, but would have a hard time explaining it succinctly.)

We passed the point where the Mini-Transat abandoned boat was adrift. It is right in the path of many of the boats in the rally, so I hope everyone is keeping a very sharp lookout. We never saw an AIS signal from it even though we passed maybe 16 miles away from it. I hope it is showing up on AIS for boats that pass closer!

Yesterday was a great day in terms of mileage. We think we sailed 180 miles. We generally consider 160 a good day. We sailed between 7-8 knots for most of the day. Currently, we are sailing at over 8 knots. The winds are good right now at 23-25 knots from the east. We expect these winds to continue for another day or two and then lessen slightly as we approach the islands.

This boat continues to move around more than the Fun House at the State Fair, and my bruising is getting comical! I happened to glance in the mirror after my shower, and let’s just say that my backside looks like a map of the Caribbean islands.

Update 9pm:
Looks like we will be under the 400NM mark later tonight! Not many more milestones left!