(Dec 5th - Jan 1st)
"Happy the man, and happy he alone, He who can call today his own. He who secure within can say: Tomorrow do thy worst for I have lived today"
Las Palmas, Gran Canaria -----> Tortola, BVIs
27º 50'N, 015º 20'W -----> 18º 25'N, 064º 42'W
Day 1:
Dec 5th - Left Las Palmas at 4:30 after a 4 hour wait at the fuel dock! So much for an early start! Anyway we're off, who knows how long for?
Day 2:
Dec 6th - Well we're cracking along at 6 knots, and dolphins have decided to play in our bow wave! There are loads and they stayed with us for a good hour, we got some fantastic photos:
All the next photos were taken by Tom hanging of the bow!
We were all whooping and calling them as they dived under the bow from one side to the other! At the same time there was another group next to us jumping in the waves, they were everywhere!
<----- Tom and dad whooping and calling the dolphins!
Next Tom and dad poled out both the genoa and the ballooner, were headed straight down wind at 6 knots
Day 4
Dec 8th - We're stilling doing a good 5 knots! The days are getting warmer, and the sky now is always blue and clear, we're definitely heading south!
<-----
Alex doing Delia Smith whilst making brownies, "Here's one I made
earlier!"
Day 6
Dec 10th - A beautiful sunrise
Day 7
Dec 11th - So far we've done 783 miles in 6 days. Though I shouldn't say we're sailing, since we've had the motor on for the past 3 days, there's not a breath of wind. It seems like we're not the only ones though, we talked to another boat on the radio today, and they're in the same predicament! We're on a course south-west-south, hoping to reach the trade winds by going south, let's hope it works, or we'll be arriving in the Caribbean on New year's day! We've all been reading a book a day, for lack of anything else to do! I've been working on some updates for the website, we've got some wild ideas!
Day 8
Dec 12th - Well looks like Neptune has decided to give us some more time on the Atlantic, at this rate we might not be in the BVIs before New Year. The sea around us is so flat that it looks flat.
Day 13
Dec 17th - We've sailed 1359 miles, and we have 1790 to go until we reach Tortola, about 2 weeks more. Which means for sure that the only way to get to Tortola before December 30th would be if we did 5.7 knots the rest of the way. Let's hope we can, fingers crossed!
Day 15
Dec 19th - 2 weeks at sea and another 2 weeks to go at this rate! Bit of excitement today when we caught a Dolphin fish! We think it's a female since it's quite small, and doesn't have as distinctive a shape as the males. None of us wanted to fillet it, so eventually we volunteered Tom, and he got 2 juicy fillets from it and had them for dinner!
Day 17
Dec 21st - Halfway there! We've done 24º and we have another 24º to go! We've had trade winds, so we've been doing 7-8 knots. Hopefully they'll stay for the rest of the trip! 1137 miles to go.
Day 18
Dec 22nd - Put up our Christmas tree today, we've had to tie it down so it doesn't fall over! Later we all sat in the cockpit and drank chilled sodas as we watched the sun go down. It's become a ceremony now, Sundowners, we put on some relaxing music, crack open a chilled drink and enjoy the sunset! Then Tom serenaded us on his guitar, by the light of a full moon. Life's pretty good!
Day 20
Dec 24th - 1000 miles to go! Right now we're at 47º W, and Tortola is at 64ºW, so only another 17 degrees to go.
* * * * *
3:40pm - Oh dear, we've been hit by a squall, and just as we we're about to furl the sails in, the ballooner ripped all the way up one side, and as we we're taking it down it pretty much ripped in half. It's definitely not fixable, so now we only have one fore sail to go down wind with, slowing us down a lot. May be Xmas day will bring more luck? Other then that Tom and Alex have been mastering the harmonica, "I got the blues . . . "
Day 21
Dec 25th, Christmas Day - MERRY CHRISTMAS!! A beautiful day, and certainly an unforgettable Xmas. We had a very festive lunch, of corned beef sandwiches, and for Xmas dinner we had spaghetti cabonara! But I think the highlight of the day was when we got hit by a rogue wave. Unfortunately we had the saloon hatch open, and the wave washed over the entire deck, pouring into the saloon, as well as the aft cabin. We mopped it all up with towels, but because it's sea water, everything was still damp. We're still getting squalls, which are good because we're doing 6 knots, but the swell is huge, about 3 meters. The forecast says the winds are going to ease. 800 miles to go.
Day 22
Dec 26th - Some of the stitching on the Genoa has come undone on the foot. So the boys went up there and taped it up with sail tape! * * * * Later, Well the tape keeps coming off, we've tried using duct tape but it's no better! We'll see how it holds up through the night.
Day 23
Dec 27th - The Genoa didn't stay together through the night, so this morning we took it down, and spent 2 hours sewing up the edging. We also watched Bridget Jones' Diary on DVD! Who said we'd be with our luxuries in the middle of the Atlantic?! 487 miles to go.
< ----- Slaving away on the genoa.
Day 25
Dec 29th - Tom took a lovely photo of the sunrise. 386 miles to go!
Day 26
Dec 30th - Winds are picking up, and by tonight we should be getting squalls again. We reached 60º at 11am this morning, which means we now plot our position on the map of the Caribbean instead of the Atlantic! And we only have 4º to go, 154 miles exactly!
We all guessed what time we'd arrive a couple of days ago, so far we're doing better then planned, so Andrea, who guessed 1pm on Jan 1st is winning! We're doing 5-6 knots, and with squalls we could be doing 7.5, we might make it for New Years yet! Strange to think that we only have 2 more days on the boat, and tomorrow we'll see land on the horizon! It all seems to be going quite fast now, we've done 2838 miles so far!
