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Shelena - Having a blast; so abandoned destination Antigua in favour of Tortola



34:36.7N 073:49.15W

6th, November, 2016

The thing about sailing is that you go where the winds take you, but also
wherever your whim directs you. We sound like we never make our minds up
about anything. That is largely true. Even final crewing was uncertain until
the night of the leaving dinner. I don't accept that I am unable to make up
my mind. No, it is more about others that influence our plans; Like paid
crew not getting to Portsmouth on time. But from that change we have the
benefit of Helen aboard and now we have decided not to go to Antigua. Petri
does not matter where we go provided we have a good sail! Too boring to
explain, but there was good reason for us directly to sail to Antigua since
we did not want to do the beat from Tortola to Antigua. So what are we
doing? Final, final decision is that we finish the ARC 1500 and receive our
dockside rum punch, get to party and whatever; as my daughters say! Not sure
what that really means but is sounds about right. So for our girls and
others reading this you now know our latest plans.

What about the sailing? Yesterday was rubbish with light winds. We motored
for several hours. 4 knots is not my idea of fun. What a difference a day
makes. We now have winds with 20 plus knots, with a maximum wind speed of 26
knots on a run. We have clocked 12 knots as our SOG maximum. That could be
exceeded later as we will soon enter a Gulf Stream eddy that flows south
east. The main gulf stream runs along the eastern sea board and is generally
north east until it bends to continental Europe. We passed through that at a
perpendicular angle to pass through as quickly as possible. Then 4o Nm on
and there is a reverse current heading our way. A free escalator ride with
potentially 2.5 knots on offer. All of this against a back drop of a gale in
the north (that is not coming our way) but its affect will be felt with
surge and bigger following seas. To be continued...

Fair winds to all!
Phil



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